Chen Lin-Xing, Camargo Antonio Pedro, Qin Yiting, Wang Haoyu, Zou Yuangqiang, Duan Yi, Li Hao, Koonin Eugene
Res Sq. 2025 Aug 19:rs.3.rs-7356405. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7356405/v1.
Huge phages are widespread in the biosphere, yet their prevalence and ecology in the human gut remain poorly characterized. Here, we report Jug (Jumbo gut) phages with genomes of 360-402 kilobase pairs that comprise ~1.1% of the reads in human gut metagenomes, and are predicted to infect Bacteroides and/or Phocaeicola. Although three of the four major groups of Jug phages shared >90% genome-wide sequence identity, their large terminase subunits exhibited only 38-57% identity, suggesting horizontal acquisition from other phages. Over 1,500 genomes of Jug phages were recovered from human and animal gut metagenomes, revealing their broad distribution, with largely shared gene content suggestive of frequent cross-animal-host transmission. Jug phages displayed high gene transcription activities, including the gene for a calcium-translocating P-type ATPase not detected previously in phages. These findings broaden our understanding of huge phages and highlight Jug phages as potential major players in gut microbiome ecology.
巨型噬菌体在生物圈中广泛存在，但其在人类肠道中的流行情况和生态特征仍知之甚少。在此，我们报告了Jug（巨型肠道）噬菌体，其基因组大小为360 - 402千碱基对，占人类肠道宏基因组读数的约1.1%，预计可感染拟杆菌属和/或嗜胨菌属。尽管四类主要Jug噬菌体中的三类在全基因组序列上具有>90%的同一性，但其大型末端酶亚基的同一性仅为38 - 57%，这表明它们是从其他噬菌体水平获得的。从人类和动物肠道宏基因组中回收了超过1500个Jug噬菌体基因组，揭示了它们的广泛分布，其基因内容大多共享，表明频繁发生跨动物宿主传播。Jug噬菌体表现出高基因转录活性，包括一个先前在噬菌体中未检测到的钙转运P型ATP酶基因。这些发现拓宽了我们对巨型噬菌体的理解，并突出了Jug噬菌体作为肠道微生物群落生态中潜在主要参与者的地位。
