Method for producing seaweed-derived agarotriose and its use as a prebiotic

Probiotic composition utilizing seaweed oligosaccharides through a combination of agar-degrading gut bacteria and Bifidobacterium

This technology is a probiotic composition containing the gut microbe Bacteroides plebeius DSM 17135, which expresses the agar-degrading enzymes beta-agarase and neoagarobiose hydrolase, alongside a Bifidobacterium strain capable of metabolizing agarotriose. The Bifidobacterium component is selected from specific deposited strains of B. longum subsp. infantis, B. bifidum, and B. kashiwanohense.

While animal studies have shown that degradation products of agarose, a red algae polysaccharide, increase beneficial gut bacteria, the use of oligosaccharide mixtures rather than purified single substances made it impossible to determine which specific components provided the prebiotic effect. Furthermore, how agarose-derived oligosaccharides are metabolized by gut probiotic microbes remained unknown, and in existing 3,6-anhydro-L-galactose production processes, agarotriose was treated merely as a byproduct requiring additional enzymatic degradation.

This technology utilizes a sequential metabolic structure where two enzymes produced by Bacteroides plebeius break down agar, agarose, and neoagarohexaose into agarotriose, which is then further degraded into 3,6-anhydro-L-galactose by the beta-galactosidase of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis. Because these two strains utilize seaweed polysaccharides in a step-by-step manner, they can form a beneficial microbial consortium that selectively utilizes red algae raw materials in the gut. Applicable to seaweed oligosaccharide-based gut health probiotics, anti-inflammatory functional food ingredients, and functional enhancement of agar-containing processed foods, this technology allows for the direct integration of the strain-substrate pairing—using agarotriose, once discarded as a byproduct, as a food source for beneficial bacteria—into product design.

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Key Features:

• Bacteroides plebeius DSM 17135 strain expressing beta-agarase and neoagarobiose hydrolase
• Agarotriose-metabolizing strains selected from Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis ATCC 15697, ATCC 17930, and ATCC 15702
• Bifidobacterium strains selected from the group consisting of Bifidobacterium bifidum DSM 20082 and B. kashiwanohense DSM 21854
• Probiotic composition that degrades agarotriose—produced by breaking down agar, agarose, and neoagarohexaose—into 3,6-anhydro-L-galactose using beta-galactosidase

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This invention was developed with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea for the establishment of a biotechnological production platform for fucose for food and medical materials.

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