CJ Bioscience maps how Koreans’ gut microbiome shifts across the lifespan

CJ Bioscience said Monday that it has published research examining how gut bacteria in Koreans change over the course of their lives.

This study comprehensively describes age-related changes in gut microbial composition, core strains, functional characteristics, and ecological structure in healthy Korean individuals.

CJ Bioscience Wellness Research Group Manager Lee Je-hee presented the poster. (Courtesy of CJ Bioscience)

The research team performed integrated analyses, including 16S rRNA gene sequencing, shotgun metagenomic analysis, large-scale bacterial strain cultivation, and machine learning, on 728 fecal samples from 683 healthy Koreans. This enabled the derivation of a baseline structure for the gut microbiome spanning the entire life cycle from infancy to old age.

They found that the kinds and roles of gut bacteria change as people get older. By looking at the entire cohort, they identified six main patterns of gut bacteria that become more distinct with age.

Ecological network analysis revealed distinct microbial community structures and interaction patterns across age groups. A stepwise transition in the connectivity structure among gut microbes was observed across infancy, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. Ecological structural differences were also identified between young adults and middle-aged/older adults within the same adult phase. This demonstrates that gut microbial changes represent an ecological restructuring rather than merely shifts in microbial abundance.

Furthermore, a machine learning-based analysis confirmed a high correlation between the actual age and the age-prediction model trained on gut microbiome data, validating the consistency of age-related gut microbial signals.

Ecological analysis revealed that the Korean gut microbiome can be classified into six population-level gut types. The core microorganisms that became relatively depleted differed across gut types and age groups. This suggests that patterns of gut microbial imbalance may vary depending on age and gut type.

Because of these differences, the team suggested considering both gut type and age when choosing dietary fiber, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. The kind of carbohydrate that gut bacteria can use may change depending on a person's gut type and life stage, so designing the right carbohydrate could help keep gut bacteria healthy.

This study employed a large-scale culture-based approach to isolate numerous uncultured strains that were difficult to identify solely through metagenomic analysis. Over 11,000 strains were isolated and identified, expanding the strain-level diversity of the Korean gut microbiome.

“Recent reports suggest that Westernized dietary habits and reduced dietary fiber intake, particularly among younger generations, may be linked to changes in gut microbiome composition,” a CJ Bioscience official said. “In this changing environment, the importance of analyses considering both age and gut ecological structure is growing. This study is significant as it presents a representative benchmark map of the Korean gut microbiome across the entire lifespan and a core microbial ecological framework.”

The official added, “These results can be used as basic data for future gut bacteria studies and for personalized nutrition.”

The research findings were presented as a poster at the 2026 Winter Symposium of the Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology.