jueves, 21 de agosto de 2014

A highly abundant bacteriophage discovered in the unknown sequences of human faecal metagenomes : Nature Communications : Nature Publishing Group

A highly abundant bacteriophage discovered in the unknown sequences of human faecal metagenomes : Nature Communications : Nature Publishing Group



A highly abundant bacteriophage discovered in the unknown sequences of human faecal metagenomes

Nature Communications
 
5,
 
Article number:
 
4498
 
doi:10.1038/ncomms5498
Received
 
Accepted
 
Published
 

Abstract

Metagenomics, or sequencing of the genetic material from a complete microbial community, is a promising tool to discover novel microbes and viruses. Viral metagenomes typically contain many unknown sequences. Here we describe the discovery of a previously unidentified bacteriophage present in the majority of published human faecal metagenomes, which we refer to as crAssphage. Its ~97 kbp genome is six times more abundant in publicly available metagenomes than all other known phages together; it comprises up to 90% and 22% of all reads in virus-like particle (VLP)-derived metagenomes and total community metagenomes, respectively; and it totals 1.68% of all human faecal metagenomic sequencing reads in the public databases. The majority of crAssphage-encoded proteins match no known sequences in the database, which is why it was not detected before. Using a new co-occurrence profiling approach, we predict a Bacteroides host for this phage, consistent with Bacteroides-related protein homologues and a unique carbohydrate-binding domain encoded in the phage genome.

No hay comentarios:

Publicar un comentario