The human gut microbiome is a dense and taxonomically diverse consortium of microorganisms. While the bacterial components of the microbiome have received considerable attention, comparatively little ...is known about the composition and physiological significance of human gut-associated bacteriophage populations (phageome). By extrapolating our knowledge of phage-host interactions from other environments, one could expect that >1012 viruses reside in the human gut, and we can predict that they play important roles in regulating the complex microbial networks operating in this habitat. Before delving into their function, we need to first overcome the challenges associated with studying and characterizing the phageome. In this Review, we summarize the available methods and main findings regarding taxonomic composition, community structure, and population dynamics in the human gut phageome. We also discuss the main challenges in the field and identify promising avenues for future research.
Shkoporov and Hill review our current understanding of and the available methods for studying the taxonomic composition, community structure, and population dynamics of human gut-associated bacteriophage populations (phageome). They also discuss the main challenges in the field and identify avenues for future research.
CrAssphages are an extensive and ubiquitous family of tailed bacteriophages, predicted to infect bacteria of the order Bacteroidales. Despite being found in ~50% of individuals and representing up to ...90% of human gut viromes, members of this viral family have never been isolated in culture and remain understudied. Here, we report the isolation of a CrAssphage (ΦCrAss001) from human faecal material. This bacteriophage infects the human gut symbiont Bacteroides intestinalis, confirming previous in silico predictions of the likely host. DNA sequencing demonstrates that the bacteriophage genome is circular, 102 kb in size, and has unusual structural traits. In addition, electron microscopy confirms that ΦcrAss001 has a podovirus-like morphology. Despite the absence of obvious lysogeny genes, ΦcrAss001 replicates in a way that does not disrupt proliferation of the host bacterium, and is able to maintain itself in continuous host culture during several weeks.
The human gut contains a vast array of viruses, mostly bacteriophages. The majority remain uncharacterized, and their roles in shaping the gut microbiome and in impacting on human health remain ...poorly understood. We performed longitudinal metagenomic analysis of fecal viruses in healthy adults that reveal high temporal stability, individual specificity, and correlation with the bacterial microbiome. Using a database-independent approach that uses most of the sequencing data, we uncovered the existence of a stable, numerically predominant individual-specific persistent personal virome. Clustering of viral genomes and de novo taxonomic annotation identified several groups of crAss-like and Microviridae bacteriophages as the most stable colonizers of the human gut. CRISPR-based host prediction highlighted connections between these stable viral communities and highly predominant gut bacterial taxa such as Bacteroides, Prevotella, and Faecalibacterium. This study provides insights into the structure of the human gut virome and serves as an important baseline for hypothesis-driven research.
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•The human gut virome is highly individual and stable for up to 1 year•A stable and predominant fraction of viruses constitutes a persistent personal virome•Persistent bacteriophages can be linked to highly predominant gut bacterial taxa•Virulent crAss-like and Microviridae bacteriophages predominate and persist in the gut
Shkoporov et al. demonstrate high individual specificity and temporal stability of the human gut virome. They describe a numerically prevalent and persisting fraction of the viral community, termed persistent personal virome (PPV). The PPV consists mainly of virulent bacteriophages predicted to target major taxonomic groups of gut bacteria.
The human gut virome is thought to significantly impact the microbiome and human health. However, most virome analyses have been performed on a limited fraction of known viruses. Using whole-virome ...analysis on a published keystone inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cohort and an in-house ulcerative colitis dataset, we shed light on the composition of the human gut virome in IBD beyond this identifiable minority. We observe IBD-specific changes to the virome and increased numbers of temperate phage sequences in individuals with Crohn’s disease. Unlike prior database-dependent methods, no changes in viral richness were observed. Among IBD subjects, the changes in virome composition reflected alterations in bacterial composition. Furthermore, incorporating both bacteriome and virome composition offered greater classification power between health and disease. This approach to analyzing whole virome across cohorts highlights significant IBD signals, which may be crucial for developing future biomarkers and therapeutics.
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•Analyzing viral dark matter changes our understanding of the gut virome•Gene-based clustering can address the challenges of high inter-individual variation•Healthy human gut virome is dominated by a stable core of virulent bacteriophages•In Crohn’s disease, the virulent core is replaced with temperate bacteriophages
In this study, Clooney et al. describe changes in the composition and function of the human gut virome by analyzing both known and unknown viral sequences. They provide evidence that a healthy core of virulent bacteriophage is replaced by temperate bacteriophage in inflammatory bowel disease.
The gut microbiome is a dense and metabolically active consortium of microorganisms and viruses located in the lower gastrointestinal tract of the human body. Bacteria and their viruses (phages) are ...the most abundant members of the gut microbiome. Investigating their biology and the interplay between the two is important if we are to understand their roles in human health and disease. In this review, we summarize recent advances in resolving the taxonomic structure and ecological functions of the complex community of phages in the human gut-the gut phageome. We discuss how age, diet, and geography can all have a significant impact on phageome composition. We note that alterations to the gut phageome have been observed in several diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and colorectal cancer, and we evaluate whether these phageome changes can directly or indirectly contribute to disease etiology and pathogenesis. We also highlight how lack of standardization in studying the gut phageome has contributed to variation in reported results.
Faecalibacterium prausnitzii is a ubiquitous member of the human gut microbiome, constituting up to 15% of the total bacteria in the human gut. Substantial evidence connects decreased levels of F. ...prausnitzii with the onset and progression of certain forms of inflammatory bowel disease, which has been attributed to its anti-inflammatory potential. Two phylogroups of F. prausnitzii have been identified, with a decrease in phylogroup I being a more sensitive marker of intestinal inflammation. Much of the genomic and physiological data available to date was collected using phylogroup II strains. Little analysis of F. prausnitzii genomes has been performed so far and genetic differences between phylogroups I and II are poorly understood.
In this study we sequenced 11 additional F. prausnitzii genomes and performed comparative genomics to investigate intraspecies diversity, functional gene complement and the mobilome of 31 high-quality draft and complete genomes. We reveal a very low level of average nucleotide identity among F. prausnitzii genomes and a high level of genome plasticity. Two genomogroups can be separated based on differences in functional gene complement, albeit that this division does not fully agree with separation based on conserved gene phylogeny, highlighting the importance of horizontal gene transfer in shaping F. prausnitzii genomes. The difference between the two genomogroups is mainly in the complement of genes associated with catabolism of carbohydrates (such as a predicted sialidase gene in genomogroup I) and amino acids, as well as defense mechanisms.
Based on the combination of ANI of genomic sequences, phylogenetic analysis of core proteomes and functional differences we propose to separate the species F. prausnitzii into two new species level taxa: F. prausnitzii sensu stricto (neotype strain A2-165
= DSM 17677
= JCM 31915
) and F. moorei sp. nov. (type strain ATCC 27768
= NCIMB 13872
).
The crAss-like phages are ubiquitous and highly abundant members of the human gut virome that infect commensal bacteria of the order Bacteroidales. Although incapable of lysogeny, these viruses ...demonstrate long-term persistence in the human gut microbiome, dominating the virome in some individuals.
Here we show that rapid phase variation of alternate capsular polysaccharides in Bacteroides intestinalis cultures plays an important role in a dynamic equilibrium between phage sensitivity and resistance, allowing phage and bacteria to multiply in parallel. The data also suggests the role of a concomitant phage persistence mechanism associated with delayed lysis of infected cells, similar to carrier state infection. From an ecological and evolutionary standpoint, this type of phage-host interaction is consistent with the Piggyback-the-Winner model, which suggests a preference towards lysogenic or other "benign" forms of phage infection when the host is stably present at high abundance.
Long-term persistence of bacteriophage and host could result from mutually beneficial mechanisms driving bacterial strain-level diversity and phage survival in complex environments.
Abstract
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in the microbiome has profound consequences for human health and disease. The spread of antibiotic resistance genes, virulence, and pathogenicity determinants ...predominantly occurs by way of HGT. Evidence exists of extensive horizontal transfer in the human gut microbiome. Phage transduction is a type of HGT event in which a bacteriophage transfers non-viral DNA from one bacterial host cell to another. The abundance of tailed bacteriophages in the human gut suggests that transduction could act as a significant mode of HGT in the gut microbiome. Here we review in detail the known mechanisms of phage-mediated HGT, namely specialized and generalized transduction, lateral transduction, gene-transfer agents, and molecular piracy, as well as methods used to detect phage-mediated HGT, and discuss its potential implications for the human gut microbiome.
CrAssphages represent the most abundant virus in the human gut microbiota, but the lack of available genome sequences for comparison has kept them enigmatic. Recently, sequence-based classification ...of distantly related crAss-like phages from multiple environments was reported, leading to a proposed familial-level taxonomic group. Here, we assembled the metagenomic sequencing reads from 702 human fecal virome/phageome samples and analyzed 99 complete circular crAss-like phage genomes and 150 contigs ≥70 kb. In silico comparative genomics and taxonomic analysis enabled a classification scheme of crAss-like phages from human fecal microbiomes into four candidate subfamilies composed of ten candidate genera. Laboratory analysis was performed on fecal samples from an individual harboring seven distinct crAss-like phages. We achieved crAss-like phage propagation in ex vivo human fecal fermentations and visualized short-tailed podoviruses by electron microscopy. Mass spectrometry of a crAss-like phage capsid protein could be linked to metagenomic sequencing data, confirming crAss-like phage structural annotations.
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•Screening of human fecal metagenomic samples reveals 249 crAss-like phage genomes•The crAss-like phages were classified into 4 subfamilies composed of 10 candidate genera•A crAss-like phage was propagated in ex vivo human fecal fermentations•Short-tailed phage virions could be visualized by electron microscopy
CrAssphage is the most abundant human gut-associated virus. Guerin et al. identify 249 crAss-like phage genomes and classify them into four subfamilies and ten candidate genera that differ among human populations. These in silico predictions are combined with ex vivo propagations, electron microscopy imaging, and mass spectrometry detection.
This article summarises the activities of the Bacterial Viruses Subcommittee of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses for the period of March 2021−March 2022. We provide an overview of ...the new taxa proposed in 2021, approved by the Executive Committee, and ratified by vote in 2022. Significant changes to the taxonomy of bacterial viruses were introduced: the paraphyletic morphological families
Podoviridae
,
Siphoviridae
, and
Myoviridae
as well as the order
Caudovirales
were abolished, and a binomial system of nomenclature for species was established. In addition, one order, 22 families, 30 subfamilies, 321 genera, and 862 species were newly created, promoted, or moved.
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