RESUMEN
Our emerging view of the gut microbiome largely focuses on bacteria, while less is known about other microbial components, such as bacteriophages (phages). Though phages are abundant in the gut, very few phages have been isolated from this ecosystem. Here, we report the genomes of 27 phages from the United States and Bangladesh that infect the prevalent human gut bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. These phages are mostly distinct from previously sequenced phages with the exception of two, which are crAss-like phages. We compare these isolates to existing human gut metagenomes, revealing similarities to previously inferred phages and additional unexplored phage diversity. Finally, we use host tropisms of these phages to identify alleles of phage structural genes associated with infectivity. This work provides a detailed view of the gut's "viral dark matter" and a framework for future efforts to further integrate isolation- and sequencing-focused efforts to understand gut-resident phages.
Asunto(s)
Bacteriófagos/clasificación , Bacteriófagos/genética , Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron/virología , Especificidad del Huésped/genética , Tropismo Viral/genética , Bacteriófagos/aislamiento & purificación , Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron/genética , Bangladesh , Biodiversidad , Microbioma Gastrointestinal , Genoma Viral , Genómica , Humanos , Metagenoma/genética , Filogenia , Análisis de Secuencia , Estados Unidos , Secuenciación Completa del GenomaRESUMEN
A variety of cell surface structures dictate interactions between bacteria and their environment, including their viruses (bacteriophages). Members of the human gut Bacteroidetes characteristically produce several phase-variable capsular polysaccharides (CPSs), but their contributions to bacteriophage interactions are unknown. To begin to understand how CPSs have an impact on Bacteroides-phage interactions, we isolated 71 Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron-infecting bacteriophages from two locations in the United States. Using B. thetaiotaomicron strains that express defined subsets of CPSs, we show that CPSs dictate host tropism for these phages and that expression of non-permissive CPS variants is selected under phage predation, enabling survival. In the absence of CPSs, B. thetaiotaomicron escapes bacteriophage predation by altering expression of eight distinct phase-variable lipoproteins. When constitutively expressed, one of these lipoproteins promotes resistance to multiple bacteriophages. Our results reveal important roles for Bacteroides CPSs and other cell surface structures that allow these bacteria to persist under bacteriophage predation, and hold important implications for using bacteriophages therapeutically to target gut symbionts.