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Kleerebezem et al. Microbiome Res Rep 2024;3:46 Microbiome Research
DOI: 10.20517/mrr.2024.48
Reports

Review Open Access

Synergistic vs. complementary synbiotics: the
complexity of discriminating synbiotic concepts

using a Lactiplantibacillus plantarum exemplary
study

Michiel Kleerebezem 1 , Jori Führen 2

1
Department of Animal Sciences, Host Microbe Interactomics Group, Wageningen university and Research, Wageningen 6708
WD, the Netherlands.
2
Laboratory of Food Microbiology, Wageningen university and Research, Wageningen 6708 WG, the Netherlands.
Correspondence to: Prof. Michiel Kleerebezem, Department of Animal Sciences, Host Microbe Interactomics Group,
Wageningen University and Research, De Elst 1, Wagenoingen 6708 WD, the Netherlands. E-mail: michiel.kleerebezem@wur.nl
How to cite this article: Kleerebezem M, Führen J. Synergistic vs. complementary synbiotics: the complexity of discriminating
synbiotic concepts using a Lactiplantibacillus plantarum exemplary study. Microbiome Res Rep 2024;3:46. https://dx.doi.org/10.
20517/mrr.2024.48
Received: 10 Jul 2024 First Decision: 1 Aug 2024 Revised: 20 Aug 2024 Accepted: 27 Aug 2024 Published: 4 Sep 2024

Academic Editors: Bo Yang, Marco Ventura Copy Editor: Dong-Li Li Production Editor: Dong-Li Li

Abstract
Synbiotics are defined as “a mixture comprising live microorganisms and substrate(s) selectively utilized by host
microorganisms that confers a health benefit on the host”. The definition discriminates between synergistic and
complementary synbiotics. Synergistic synbiotics involve a direct interaction between the substrate and co-
administered microbe(s), while complementary synbiotics act through independent mechanisms. Here, we
evaluate the complexity of discrimination between these two synbiotic concepts using an exemplary study
performed with a panel of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) strains to identify strain-specific synergistic
synbiotics that eventually turned out to work via a complementary synbiotic mechanism. This study highlights that
assessing the in situ selectivity of synergistic synbiotics in the intestinal tract is challenging due to the confounding
effects of the substrate ingredient on the endogenous microbiome, thereby raising doubts about the added value of
distinguishing between synergistic and complementary concepts in synbiotics.

Keywords: Synbiotics, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, prebiotics, ecosystem interaction, nutrient competition

© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

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