Common foods alter gut bacteria by influencing viruses

[InitialConditions]

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327486.php#3

"A group of researchers has brought the idea of food as a medicine one step closer. They have identified certain common foodstuffs that alter our microbiome."

 

[Peter T]

The research cited is from the journal Gut Microbes, with lead author Lance Boling:

“Dietary prophage inducers and antimicrobials: toward landscaping the human gut microbiome”
link - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19490976.2019.1701353

ABSTRACT
The approximately 1011 viruses and microbial cells per gram of fecal matter (dry weight) in the large intestine are important to human health. The responses of three common gut bacteria species, and one opportunistic pathogen, to 117 commonly consumed foods, chemical additives, and plant extracts were tested. Many compounds, including Stevia rebaudiana and bee propolis extracts, exhibited species-specific growth inhibition by prophage induction. Overall, these results show that various foods may change the abundances of gut bacteria by modulating temperate phage and suggests a novel path for landscaping the human gut microbiome.

Conclusions
Here we expanded the possibility of microbiome landscaping through intentional ingestion of particular dietary compounds that modulate bacterial abundances in the gut. We found that some compounds act as reductive modulators by inducing prophages, and because some of these are surprisingly common ingredients (e.g., aspartame, toothpaste), diet-induced prophage activation is likely a regular occurrence in the gut ecosystem. As these ingredients are consumed by populations around the world, these mechanisms could further our understanding of how particular foods shape gut microbiomes. They could also provide experimental tools for identifying novel mechanisms of prophage induction; these tools are essential for probing the dark matter of viral functional diversity, and for determining how phages influence and are affected by their environments..

[Edited to add ‘conclusion’ and correct formatting of the conclusion.]