The Urinary Tract commensal <i>Peptoniphilus</i> spp. Encodes a Novel 17β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase
, which was synthesized and functionally validated, revealing conserved activity despite low sequence identity to the previously characterized urinary tract enzyme DesG. The enzymes were found to have broad substrate specificity for C19 and C18 17keto- and 17β-hydroxysteroids. Together, these findings expand the known diversity of microbial 17β-HSDHs and identify previously unrecognized androgen-forming activities within the genitourinary microbiome.
Authors
- H. Rex Gaskins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1249-535X)
- Elizabeth Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8954-4551)
- John W. Erdman
- Taojun Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1885-3864)
- Betsy Barnick
- Debapriya Dutta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2370-2315)
- Briawna Binion
- Pauline Mbuvi
- Glen Yang
- Damie Olukoya
- Jason M Ridlon
- Saeed Ahmad
- Joseph Irudayaraj
Institutions
- Carle Foundation Hospital (US)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Illinois College (US)
- Urbana University (US)
- Center for Genomic Science (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Published
- 2026-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.29.714803
- Primary Topic
- Steroid Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign