"But deep in our digestive system, a lot of them are quietly working to keep us healthy. This gut virome is a key part of the overall microbiomethe vast collection of microbes that play a crucial role in our digestion, immunity and overall health. The bacteria component of the microbiome is well known, says Tao Zuo, a microbiologist at Sun Yat-sen University in China. But the virome we don't really know much about."
"Their review, published in Precision Clinical Medicine, particularly focuses on bacteriophagesviruses that infect bacteria and make up more than 95 percent of the virome. These viruses sometimes benefit us by infecting and killing harmful gut bacteria. But they can also strengthen pathogensfor example, if a bacteriophage carries a gene that offers resistance to antibiotics, says virologist Jelle Matthijnssens, who specializes in virome research at Belgium's Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) and was not involved in the review."
The gut virome comprises a small fraction of the microbiome yet plays crucial roles in digestion, immunity and overall health. Bacteriophages constitute over 95 percent of the virome and can kill harmful bacteria or transfer genes such as antibiotic-resistance determinants to pathogens. The virome's low biomass and rapid mutation rates make genetic isolation and study difficult. Individual viromes change across the lifespan and in response to diet and environment: infants often harbor bacteriophages that outnumber bacteria at birth, and microbial populations shift with exposure and developmental stages including adolescence.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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