Is Ruminococcus gnavus a poor mucin degrader?

Yes - when considering the number of mucin degrading pathways R. gnavus encodes. Most strains of R. gnavus encode only a limited range of mucin-degrading pathways and so degrade only a few specific mucin types. However, R. gnavus is very good at degrading those specific mucin types.
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- Mucin degradation is categorised by the percentage of pathways encoded:
- Poor degrader: 0–25%
- Moderate degrader: 26–74%
- Good degrader: 75–100%
- Most R. gnavus genomes encode ~8.3% of mucin-degrading pathways, meaning it can degrade only specific mucins.
- By contrast, Akkermansia muciniphila encodes 100% of mucin-degrading pathways and is considered highly efficient.
- Microbiome Explorer identifies the number of encoded mucin pathways, but not how efficiently they are used by a species.
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10.3389/fgene.2015.00081

10.1093/glycob/cwaa097

10.1080/19490976.2016.1186334