The pros and cons of monosodium glutamate (MSG), a common food additive, have been long disputed, whereas the effects of MSG consumption on human intestinal microbiome have not been fully understood. In the present study, metagenomics sequencing was performed to evaluate the effects of MSG on human intestinal microbiota (n = 12) during a four-week experiment. It was observed that MSG consumption did not significantly alter the intestinal microbial community structure and functional features of the subjects. Although some bacteria including Faecalibacterium, Megamonas, Blautia and Collinsella tended to change, there was no significant difference in the alteration of all genera. At the functional level, the microbial functions were rich, mainly distributed in membrane transport, amino acid metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism, but there was no significant difference between samples obtained at different times. Additionally, it was discovered that the impact of the individuals on intestinal microbiota was greater than that of MSG.

常见的食品添加剂味精（MSG）的优缺点早已引起争议，但味精摄入对人体肠道微生物组的影响尚不完全清楚。在本研究中，进行了宏基因组测序，以评估味精对人类肠道微生物群（n  = 12）的作用，历时四周。观察到食用味精不会显着改变受试者的肠道微生物群落结构和功能特征。虽然一些细菌，包括Faecalibacterium，Megamonas，Blautia和柯林斯倾向于改变，所有属的改变都没有显着差异。在功能水平上，微生物功能丰富，主要分布在膜转运，氨基酸代谢和碳水化合物代谢上，但在不同时间获得的样品之间无显着差异。另外，发现个体对肠道菌群的影响大于MSG。