A catalog of ethanol-producing microbes in humans.

Aim: Endogenous ethanol production emerges as a mechanism of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, obesity, diabetes and auto-brewery syndrome.

Methods

To identify ethanol-producing microbes in humans, we used the NCBI taxonomy browser and the PubMed database with an automatic query and manual verification.

Results

85 ethanol-producing microbes in human were identified. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida and Pichia were the most represented fungi. Enterobacteriaceae was the most represented bacterial family with mainly Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Species of the Lachnospiraceae and Clostridiaceae family, of the Lactobacillales order and of the Bifidobacterium genus were also identified.

Conclusion

This catalog will help the study of ethanol-producing microbes in human in the pathophysiology, diagnosis, prevention and management of human diseases associated with endogenous ethanol production.