Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63108, USA.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2012 Sep;10(9):607-17. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro2853. Epub 2012 Aug 6.
Over the past decade, researchers have begun to characterize viral diversity using metagenomic methods. These studies have shown that viruses, the majority of which infect bacteria, are probably the most genetically diverse components of the biosphere. Here, we briefly review the incipient rise of a phage biology renaissance, which has been catalysed by advances in next-generation sequencing. We explore how work characterizing phage diversity and lifestyles in the human gut is changing our view of ourselves as supra-organisms. Finally, we discuss how a renewed appreciation of phage dynamics may yield new applications for phage therapies designed to manipulate the structure and functions of our gut microbiomes.
在过去的十年中，研究人员开始使用宏基因组学方法来描述病毒的多样性。这些研究表明，大多数感染细菌的病毒可能是生物圈中遗传多样性最高的组成部分。在这里，我们简要回顾一下由下一代测序技术推动的噬菌生物学复兴的初步兴起。我们探讨了描述人类肠道中噬菌体多样性和生活方式的工作如何改变我们对自己作为超级生物体的看法。最后，我们讨论了重新认识噬菌体动力学如何为旨在操纵我们肠道微生物组结构和功能的噬菌体疗法提供新的应用。
