Bacteriophages of the Human Gut: The "Known Unknown" of the Microbiome.

By A. Shkoporov, C. Hill. Cell Host and Microbe, 2019

637 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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.

Subfields: Ecology, Infectious Diseases, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0617c4ad4ba1dcfdc97604f343ce7c4dd2184233

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Citations in the corpus

• The use of bacteriophages for food safety (2020, background): “They are abundant in the environment, naturally found in food materials and water, and also make up a significant portion of the human microbiome [17].”