Infant gut DNA bacteriophage strain persistence during the first 3 years of life

Cell Host Microbe. 2023 Dec 5:S1931-3128(23)00466-3. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2023.11.015. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTBacteriophages are key components of gut microbiomes, yet the phage colonization process in the infant gut remains uncertain. Here, we establish a large phage sequence database and use strain-resolved analyses to investigate DNA phage succession in infants throughout the first 3 years of life. Analysis of 819 fecal metagenomes collected from 28 full-term and 24 preterm infants and their mothers revealed that early-life phageome richness increases over time and reaches adult-like complexity by age 3. Approximately 9% of early phage colonizers, which are mostly maternally transmitted and infect Bacteroides, persist for 3 years and are more prevalent in full-term than in preterm infants. Although rare, phages with stop codon reassignment are more likely to persist than non-recoded phages and generally display an increase in in-frame reassigned stop codons over 3 years. Overall, maternal seeding, stop codon reassignment, host CRISPR-Cas locus prevalence, and diverse phage populations contribute to stable viral colonization.PMID:38096814 | DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2023.11.015
Source: Cell Host and Microbe - Category: Microbiology Authors: Source Type: research