While these associations are not evidence of causality, they motivate mechanistic studies (e.g., gnotobiotic models and in situ peptide perturbations) to test whether phage-encoded AMPs can drive microbiota shifts relevant to metabolic disease.Differential expression analysis comparing obesity with obesity and metabolic syndrome identified six AMPs that were significantly overexpressed, originating from chromosomal, plasmid, and phage genomic contexts. This evidence concerns the gene ADSL and metabolic disease.