A prominent glycyl radical enzyme in human gut microbiomes metabolizes trans -4-hydroxy- l -proline

Chemically guided functional profiling The big challenge posed by the microbiota living in or on humans is working out what they do for us. Microorganisms generate large quantities of peptides and proteins that may have profound systemic effects on the host. Levin et al. took microbial metagenome data and used a combination of bioinformatic tools to generate a network that clusters sequences of enzymes sharing similar biological functions (see the Perspective by Glasner). Experiments verified these homology and structural-chemical inferences. The analysis identified enzymes involved in anaerobic short-chain fatty acid production and L-proline biosynthesis, both of which are key mediators of healthy microbiota-host symbioses. Science , this issue p. eaai8386 ; see also p. 577