Dietary fibers can be utilized to shape the human gut microbiota. However, the outcomes from most dietary fibers currently used as prebiotics are a result of competition between microbes with overlapping abilities to utilize these fibers. Thus, divergent fiber responses are observed across individuals harboring distinct microbial communities. Here, we propose that dietary fibers can be classified hierarchically according to their specificity toward gut microbes. Highly specific fibers harbor chemical and physical characteristics that allow them to be utilized by only a narrow group of bacteria within the gut, reducing competition for that substrate. The use of such fibers as prebiotics targeted to specific microbes would result in predictable shifts independent of the background microbial composition.

中文翻译：

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膳食纤维选择对肠道菌群可预测变化的新观点。

膳食纤维可用于塑造人体肠道菌群。然而，目前大多数用作益生元的膳食纤维的结果是微生物之间竞争的结果，这些微生物具有重叠的利用这些纤维的能力。因此，在具有不同微生物群落的个体之间观察到不同的纤维反应。在这里，我们建议膳食纤维可以根据其对肠道微生物的特异性进行分级。高度特定的纤维具有化学和物理特性，使它们仅能被肠道内一小部分细菌利用，从而减少了对该底物的竞争。这类纤维作为针对特定微生物的益生元的使用将导致可预测的转变，而与背景微生物组成无关。