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Identifying and analyzing bacteriophages in human fecal samples: what could we discover?

    Maite Muniesa

    Department of Microbiology, University of Barcelona, Diagonal 643, Annex, Floor 0, Barcelona, Spain

    &
    Juan Jofre

    *Author for correspondence:

    E-mail Address: jjofre@ub.edu

    Department of Microbiology, University of Barcelona, Diagonal 643, Annex, Floor 0, Barcelona, Spain

    Published Online:https://doi.org/10.2217/fmb.14.47

    ABSTRACT: 

    The human gut is a complex ecosystem, densely populated with microbes including enormous amounts of phages. Metagenomic studies indicate a great diversity of bacteriophages, and because of the variety of gut bacterial species, the human or animal gut is probably a perfect ecological niche for phages that can infect and propagate in their bacterial communities. In addition, some phages have the capacity to mobilize genes, as demonstrated by the enormous fraction of phage particles in feces that contain bacterial DNA. All these facts indicate that, through predation and horizontal gene transfer, bacteriophages play a key role in shaping the size, structure and function of intestinal microbiomes, although our understanding of their effects on gut bacterial populations is only just beginning.

    Papers of special note have been highlighted as: •• of considerable interest

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