Does microbiome contribute to longevity?

A new study in the peer-reviewed OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, suggests that compositional and functional differences in the gut microbiota may be associated with mechanisms that contribute to the determination of longevity or aging. Click here to read the article now.

Shui-Hong Yao, from the Quzhou College of Technology, Kun-Hua Zheng, from the People’s Hospital of Kaihua, and coauthors from Quzhou, China, compared the gut microbiota of Chinese individuals in two different age groups, long-living adults (aged over 90 years) and elderly adults (aged 65–74 years) who were free of major diseases. 

“We found significantly lower relative abundances of bacteria in the genera Sutterella and Megamonas in the long-living individuals,” stated the investigators. They also noted that microbiota may potentially influence longevity by regulating biological processes such as autophagy, telomere maintenance, and amino acid metabolism.

“Microbiome scholarship offers new possibilities to discover the mechanisms of aging and novel molecular targets for antiaging interventions. The present findings reported from the Kaihua County, Quzhou, China are encouraging and call for future research with prospective study designs, larger samples and in different world regions and ecological contexts,” says Associate Editor Biaoyang Lin, PhD and Vural Özdemir, MD, PhD, DABCP, MA, Editor-in-Chief of OMICS.

About the Journal
OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology is an authoritative and highly innovative peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal published monthly online, addressing the latest advances at the intersection of postgenomics medicine, biotechnology and global society, including the integration of multi-omics knowledge, data analyses and modeling, and applications of high-throughput approaches to study complex biological and societal problems. Public policy, governance and societal aspects of large-scale biology and 21st century data-enabled sciences are also peer-reviewed. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology website.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers publishers is known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many areas of science and biomedical research. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 90 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.