J Appl Biol Chem (2019) 62(2), 211-217 https://doi.org/10.3839/jabc.2019.029 Online ISSN 2234-7941 Print ISSN 1976-0442 Article: Food Science Effect of mushroom (Schizophyllum spp.) derived β-glucan on low-fiber diet induced gut dysbiosis Karthika Muthuramalingam 1 · Vineet Singh 2 · Changmin Choi 1 · Seung In Choi 3 · Sanggyu Park 4 · Young Mee Kim 1 · Tatsuya Unno 2,5 · Moonjae Cho 1,6 Received: 22 May 2019 / Accepted: 7 June 2019 / Published Online: 30 June 2019 © The Korean Society for Applied Biological Chemistry 2019 Abstract Dietary pattern has paramount importance in shaping the gut microbiota and its associated host health. Herein this study, long term (12 weeks) impact of mushroom derived dietary fiber, β-glucan, is investigated for its effect on low fiber diet consumption. Inclusion of dietary fiber into the low fiber diet (LFD) increased the abundance of genera Lactobacillus and Anaerostipes, the microbes responsible for butyrate (major ‘fuel source’ of colonocytes) production. Mice fed LFD with β-glucan showed significant increase in the length of small intestine compared to that of the LFD group without β-glucan. Further, dietary fiber consumption enhanced goblet cell density along with mucosal layer thickness. These results indicate promising effects of β-glucan towards maintenance of healthy gut and gut microbiota. Keywords β-glucan · Dietary fiber · Gut Dysbiosis · Gut microbiota · Low-fiber diet Introduction Diet is one of the major factors that modulate gut microbiome. With the rapid changing lifestyle toward westernization, such as high consumption of calories, refined carbohydrates, sugar, salt, fat, animal proteins, energy dense and highly processed foods etc., the gut microbiota can dramatically get altered, leading to gut dysbiosis. Further, diet components lacking microbiota-accessible carbohydrates ensue irremediable loss of gut microbial population, thereby contributing dysfunctions, chronic inflammatory disorders, metabolic syndromes etc [1]. The susceptibility to these diseases, at-least in part, can be prevented by adding dietary fibers to the diet, thereby establishing a healthy host-microbe relationship and host immunity. Dietary fiber, as defined by the Institute of Medicine (US), consists of non-digestible carbohydrate and lignin that are intrinsic and intact in plants [2]. On an average, the recommended intake of fiber content for a young man and woman is around 38 g/day and 25 g/day respectively [3]. Diets that lack the required amount of fibers will make the people more prone towards obesity, heart disorders, diabetes, bowel cancers, constipation etc. Foods such as whole-grain cereals, fruits, vegetables, legumes etc. are said to be rich in fiber content [4]. Consumption of dietary fibers such as cellulose, arabinoxylan, inulin, soluble corn fiber, resistant starch, guar gum, gum arabic etc., is found to be inversely linked with the risk of microbiome-associated non-communicable disorders such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, allergies, cancer, inflammatory diseases etc. [5,6]. β-Glucan, an indigestible- and hydro soluble- dietary fiber has shown to exhibit much physiological benefits on cholesterol reduction, weight management, cardiovascular risks, diabetes Moonjae Cho () E-mail: moonjcho@jejunu.ac.kr Tatsuya Unno () E-mail: tatsu@jejunu.ac.kr Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Jeju National University, Jeju 63241, Republic of Korea Faculty of Biotechnology, College of Applied Life Sciences, SARI, Jeju National University, Jeju 63243, Republic of Korea Department of Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Quegen Biotech Co. Ltd., Seoul 429931, Republic of Korea Division of Life & Environmental Science, Daegu University, Daegu 712- 714, Republic of Korea Subtropical/Tropical Organism Gene Bank, Jeju National University, Jeju 63243, Republic of Korea Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Jeju National University, Jeju 63241, Republic of Korea This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.