A newly isolated human intestinal bacterium strain capable of deglycosylating flavone C-glycosides and its functional properties

BACKGROUND: Flavone C-glycosides are difficult to be deglycosylated using traditional chemical methods due to their solid carbon–carbon bond between sugar moieties and aglycones; however, some bacteria may easily cleave this bond because they generate various specific enzymes. RESULTS: A bacterial strain, named W12-1, capable of deglycosylating orientin, vitexin, and isovitexin to their aglycones, was isolated from human intestinal bacteria in this study and identified as Enterococcus faecalis based on morphological examination, physiological and biochemical identification, and 16S rDNA sequencing. The strain was shown to preferentially deglycosylate the flavone C-glycosides on condition that the culture medium was short of carbon nutrition sources such as glucose and starch, and its deglycosylation efficiency was negatively correlated with the content of the latter two substances. CONCLUSION: This study provided a new bacterial resource for the cleavage of C-glycosidic bond of flavone C-glycosides and reported the carbon nutrition sources reduction induced deglycosylation for the first time. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12934-019-1144-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.