Comparison of populations of human faecal bacteria before and after in vitro incubation with plant cell wall substrates

Human faecal slurries were incubated anaerobically with larchwood xylan, oat spelt xylan, wheat bran, apple cell walls or sugar beet pulp as sole carbon sources. The populations which developed during incubation were different from the inoculum, the most marked changes being an increase in the number of Bacteroides species and a decrease in the number of Fusobacterium species for all carbon sources tested. With a water-soluble preparation of larchwood xylan the population was dominated by species able to ferment this substrate, in contrast to the population which developed with the insoluble substrates. The ability to use one plant cell wall substrate appeared to be related to the ability to use others. Strains capable of using plant cell wall substrates included Bacteroides spp., Clostridium clostridiiforme, Bifidobacterium longum, Fusobacterium spp. and Escherichia coli. When incubation with two contrasting substrates (bran and larchwood xylan) was replicated, the populations which developed were reproducibly different from the inoculum and from each other.