A Trait of Longevity: The Microbiota of Centenarians

Centenarians, as striking examples of individuals who reach the extreme limits of human lifespan, are a valuable model for studying how the microbiota-component can successfully maintain or re-establish a mutualistic relationship with the human host, along with the occurrence of age-related variations. Indeed, the gut microbiota of centenarians emerges as a peculiar ecosystem, different from that of younger elderly and adults, specifically adapted to an extremely aged host. The study of the centenarians' gut microbiota provided in the last decade a large amount of remarkable data, from different populations across the world, summarized in the present article. Comparison between data from different study populations pointed out that, while lifestyle, ethnicity and geography surely have an impact on such extreme microbiota adaptive variations, common signatures of longevity emerge among the studied populations. The possibilities to exploit such data for human health maintenance during aging are still being explored and interesting scenarios are being envisioned, from the bioprospecting of age-specific probiotic bacteria to the possibility of using microbiota transplantation to promote those features in the gut ecosystem that are known to be linked to longevity.