School of Life Sciences, The University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.
Warwick Medical School, The University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2021 Jun 4;11:643214. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.643214. eCollection 2021.
The investigation of the microbial populations of the human body, known as the microbiome, has led to a revolutionary field of science, and understanding of its impacts on human development and health. The majority of microbiome research to date has focussed on bacteria and other kingdoms of life, such as fungi. Trailing behind these is the interrogation of the gut viruses, specifically the phageome. Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacterial hosts, are known to dictate the dynamics and diversity of bacterial populations in a number of ecosystems. However, the phageome of the human gut, while of apparent importance, remains an area of many unknowns. In this paper we discuss the role of bacteriophages within the human gut microbiome. We examine the methods used to study bacteriophage populations, how this evolved over time and what we now understand about the phageome. We review the phageome development in infancy, and factors that may influence phage populations in adult life. The role and action of the phageome is then discussed at both a biological-level, and in the broader context of human health and disease.
对人体微生物群体（称为微生物组）的研究催生了一个革命性的科学领域，并加深了我们对其影响人类发育和健康的机制的理解。迄今为止，大多数微生物组研究都集中在细菌和其他生命领域，如真菌。排在这些之后的是对肠道病毒（特别是噬菌体组）的研究。噬菌体是感染细菌宿主的病毒，已知在许多生态系统中决定着细菌种群的动态和多样性。然而，虽然人类肠道的噬菌体组显然很重要，但它仍然有许多未知之处。在本文中，我们讨论了噬菌体在人类肠道微生物组中的作用。我们研究了用于研究噬菌体群体的方法，这些方法是如何随时间演变的，以及我们现在对噬菌体组的了解。我们综述了婴儿期噬菌体组的发展，以及可能影响成年期噬菌体群体的因素。然后从生物学层面以及更广泛的人类健康和疾病背景下讨论了噬菌体组的作用和功能。
