Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of strongly-heated air flows moving upward in a vertical tube has been conducted to investigate the effect of gas property variations on turbulence modification. Three heating conditions(q$_1$$^{+}$=0.0045, 0.0035 and 0.0018) are selected to reflect the experiment of Shehata and McEligot (1998) at the inlet bulk Reynolds numbers of 4300 and 6000. At these conditions, the flow inside the heated tube remains turbululent or undergoes a transition to subturbulent or laminarizing flow. Consequently, a significant impairment of heat transfer occurs due to the reduction of flow turbulence. The predictions of integral parameters and mean profiles such as velocity and temperature distributions are in excellent agreement with the experiment. The computed turbulence data indicate that a reduction of flow turbulence occurs mainly due to strong flow acceleration effects for strongly-heated internal gas flows. Thus, buoyancy influences are secondary but not negligible especially for turbulent flow at low heating condition. Digital flow visualization also shows that vortical structures rapidly decay as the heating increases.s.