MetaHiC phage-bacteria infection network reveals active cycling phages of the healthy human gut

Bacteriophages play important roles in regulating the intestinal human microbiota composition, dynamics, and homeostasis, and characterizing their bacterial hosts is needed to understand their impact. We applied a metagenomic Hi-C approach on 10 healthy human gut samples to unveil a large infection network encompassing more than 6000 interactions bridging a metagenomic assembled genomes (MAGs) and a phage sequence, allowing to study in situ phage-host ratio. Whereas three-quarters of these sequences likely correspond to dormant prophages, 5% exhibit a much higher coverage than their associated MAG, representing potentially actively replicating phages. We detected 17 sequences of members of the crAss-like phage family, whose hosts diversity remained until recently relatively elusive. For each of them, a unique bacterial host was identified, all belonging to different genus of Bacteroidetes. Therefore, metaHiC deciphers infection network of microbial population with a high specificity paving the way to dynamic analysis of mobile genetic elements in complex ecosystems.

Automated summary

The study applied metagenomic Hi-C approach to analyze healthy human gut samples, revealing a large infection network of bacteriophages in the gut microbiota, with over 6000 interactions identified. Results showed that 5% of the phages may be actively replicating, and 17 members of the crAss-like phage family were successfully identified with their bacterial hosts.