Phages with a broad host range are common across ecosystems
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Phages are diverse and abundant within microbial communities, where they play major roles in their evolution and adaptation. Phage replication, and multiplication, is generally thought to be restricted within a single or narrow host range. Here we use published and newly generated proximity-ligation-based metagenomic Hi-C (metaHiC) data from various environments to explore virus-host interactions. We reconstructed 4,975 microbial and 6,572 phage genomes of medium quality or higher. MetaHiC yielded a contact network between genomes and enabled assignment of approximately half of phage genomes to their hosts, revealing that a substantial proportion of these phages interact with multiple species in environments as diverse as the oceanic water column or the human gut. This observation challenges the traditional view of a narrow host spectrum of phages by unveiling that multihost associations are common across ecosystems, with implications for how they might impact ecology and evolution and phage therapy approaches.
Source: Nature Microbiology
Authors: Amaury Bignaud, Devon E. Conti, Agnès Thierry, Jacques Serizay, Karine Labadie, Julie Poulain, Olivia Cheny, Maritrini Colón-González, Laurent Debarbieux, Marianna Guerrero-Osornio, Sophie Helaine, Peter Hill, Gwenaelle Le Tinier, Gael A. Millot, Lucia Morales, Andrés Parada, Nadia Riera, Gregorio Iraola, Romain Koszul, Martial Marbouty
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Sorbonne Université, Department of Genomes & Genetics, Microbiologie Intégrative et Moléculaire, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Université Paris-Saclay, Genoscope, Génomique Métabolique du Genoscope, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Guy's Hospital, King's College London, Universidad de la República de Uruguay, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo
Language: English
Subfield: Virology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $12,690
Awards: Mechanisms underlying bacteriophages and bacteria stable coexistence and its consequences on gut microbiome function., Organisation et montée en puissance d'une Infrastructure Nationale de Génomique, G2933742463, Selection and Transmission of Antimicrobial Resistance in Complex Systems, Contact metagenomics: deciphering complex microbial community dynamics through DNA collisions
OpenAlex ID: W4414358149