A changing gut virome ecological landscape with longevity

Abstract

A recent study (Johansen et al., 2023) shows how the ecological composition of the human gut virome changes with age, showing a decline in core taxa and an enrichment of subdominant taxa, similar to what has been observed in the gut bacteriomes of centenarians.

Figure 1.. A changing gut virome throughout the human lifespan.

Younger adults are characterized by gut ecosystems enriched in core prophages that reside within core bacterial hosts in the gut, like Bacteroides and Faecalibacterium species. In later adulthood, we see a decline in core viral and bacterial clades, and a rise in subdominant taxa. These changes correspond with a decline in host mucus production with age, which may lead to a gradual thinning of the mucus layer. Finally, these ecological changes are coupled with functional development of the gut with age, like the relative rise in amino acid fermentation among bacteria and a rise in hydrogen sulfide production genes among phages.