There Are Over 140,000 Species of Viruses Living In Your Gut

If there was a word that could completely describe the human gut, that word would be diverse. This region in the human body is home to thousands of viruses called bacteriophages, as well as trillions of bacteria. A recent research published about two weeks ago in the journal Cell identified more than 140,000 viral species living in the human gut, most of them never seen before. The research analyzed over 28,000 gut microbiome samples acquired in various places in the world, mainly from healthy individuals.

The number and diversity of the viruses the researchers found was surprisingly high, and the data opens up new research avenues for understanding how viruses living in the gut affect human health.

Dr Alexandre Almeida, Postdoctoral Fellow at EMBL-EBI and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "It's important to remember that not all viruses are harmful, but represent an integral component of the gut ecosystem. For one thing, most of the viruses we found have DNA as their genetic material, which is different from the pathogens most people know, such as SARS-CoV-2 or Zika, which are RNA viruses. Secondly, these samples came mainly from healthy individuals who didn't share any specific diseases. It's fascinating to see how many unknown species live in our gut, and to try and unravel the link between them and human health."

Learn more about this research over at Science Daily.

Cool!

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