Laccase-mediated biotransformation potential for fluorinated compounds by geographically diverse human gut microbiota

The growing prevalence of synthetic organofluorine substances in agrochemicals, food packaging, and consumer products has led to increasing gastrointestinal exposure, with potential consequences for human health. Despite the extreme stability of fluorinated compounds, several microbial pathways for their transformation are known, including by laccases, a type of multicopper oxidase. However, the functionality of laccases in the gut microbiome, a natural contact point between food-associated chemicals and microbial biotransformation pathways, is poorly defined. Through a multi-study analysis of 1578 human gut metagenomes spanning a global gradient from hunter-gatherer societies to industrialized urban populations, we found that laccase-coding gene homologs are widely distributed in the human gut microbiome. We identified a significant association between both the abundance and phylogenetic diversity of laccase homologs with the degree of urbanization. As human gut microbial laccase activity has not been experimentally demonstrated, eight gut metagenome-derived laccases were heterologously expressed and screened for activity with a redox mediator system. Six of the eight laccases demonstrated activity. One of these gut microbial laccases and three previously characterized laccases were then tested for their capacity to deplete 11 different food-associated chemicals. All four effectively depleted the agrochemicals cyflumetofen and fluazinam, as well as the industrial chemical bisphenol AF to a lesser extent. By linking global gut metagenomes with activity assays, this work demonstrates the untapped potential of mining human gut metagenomes for laccases and other microbial enzymes that can actively modify various agricultural and industrial chemicals. Importance As adverse effects of fluorinated compounds on human health are emerging, the responsible enzymes from the human gut microbiome of geographically diverse human cohorts mediating interactions with fluorinated compounds in the gastrointestinal tract remain poorly characterized. In a multi-study analysis of publicly available microbiome sequencing data, we linked the abundance, diversity, and phylogeny of laccases within the gut microbiome to the degree of urbanization of human cohorts, and experimentally demonstrated the ability of these laccases to deplete a range of food-associated fluorochemicals. Another significant contribution of our study is in the integration of rural catchment areas as a quantitative metric of urbanization in gut microbiome metagenomics and enzyme activity surveys.