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Gao FZ, Hu LX, Liu YS, Qiao LK, Chen ZY, Su JQ, He LY, Bai H, Zhu YG, Ying GG. Unveiling the overlooked small-sized microbiome in river ecosystems. WATER RESEARCH 2024; 265:122302. [PMID: 39178591 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.122302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2024] [Revised: 08/12/2024] [Accepted: 08/18/2024] [Indexed: 08/26/2024]
Abstract
Enriching microorganisms using a 0.22-μm pore size is a general pretreatment procedure in river microbiome research. However, it remains unclear the extent to which this method loses microbiome information. Here, we conducted a comparative metagenomics-based study on microbiomes with sizes over 0.22 μm (large-sized) and between 0.22 μm and 0.1 μm (small-sized) in a subtropical river. Although the absolute concentration of small-sized microbiome was about two orders of magnitude lower than that of large-sized microbiome, sequencing only large-sized microbiome resulted in a significant loss of microbiome diversity. Specifically, the microbial community was different between two sizes, and 347 genera were only detected in small-sized microbiome. Small-sized microbiome had much more diverse viral community than large-sized fraction. The viruses had abundant ecological functions and were hosted by 825 species of 169 families, including pathogen-related families. Small-sized microbiome had distinct antimicrobial resistance risks from large-sized microbiome, showing an enrichment of eight antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) types as well as the detection of 140 unique ARG subtypes and five enriched risk rank I ARGs. Draft genomes of five major resistant pathogens having diverse ecological and pollutant-degrading functions were only assembled in small-sized microbiome. These findings provide novel insights into river ecosystems, and highlight the overlooked small-sized microbiome in the environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fang-Zhou Gao
- SCNU Environmental Research Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution and Environmental Safety & MOE Key Laboratory of Theoretical, Chemistry of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China; School of Environment, South China Normal University, University Town, Guangzhou, China
| | - Li-Xin Hu
- SCNU Environmental Research Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution and Environmental Safety & MOE Key Laboratory of Theoretical, Chemistry of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China; School of Environment, South China Normal University, University Town, Guangzhou, China
| | - You-Sheng Liu
- SCNU Environmental Research Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution and Environmental Safety & MOE Key Laboratory of Theoretical, Chemistry of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China; School of Environment, South China Normal University, University Town, Guangzhou, China
| | - Lu-Kai Qiao
- SCNU Environmental Research Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution and Environmental Safety & MOE Key Laboratory of Theoretical, Chemistry of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China; School of Environment, South China Normal University, University Town, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zi-Yin Chen
- SCNU Environmental Research Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution and Environmental Safety & MOE Key Laboratory of Theoretical, Chemistry of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China; School of Environment, South China Normal University, University Town, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jian-Qiang Su
- Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China
| | - Liang-Ying He
- SCNU Environmental Research Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution and Environmental Safety & MOE Key Laboratory of Theoretical, Chemistry of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China; School of Environment, South China Normal University, University Town, Guangzhou, China
| | - Hong Bai
- SCNU Environmental Research Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution and Environmental Safety & MOE Key Laboratory of Theoretical, Chemistry of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China; School of Environment, South China Normal University, University Town, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yong-Guan Zhu
- Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China
| | - Guang-Guo Ying
- SCNU Environmental Research Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution and Environmental Safety & MOE Key Laboratory of Theoretical, Chemistry of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China; School of Environment, South China Normal University, University Town, Guangzhou, China.
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Zang B, Zhou H, Zhao Y, Sano D, Chen R. Investigating potential auxiliary anaerobic digestion activity of phage under polyvinyl chloride microplastic stress. JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS 2024; 480:135950. [PMID: 39326145 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.135950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2024] [Revised: 08/18/2024] [Accepted: 09/23/2024] [Indexed: 09/28/2024]
Abstract
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) microplastics present in sewage were trapped in sludge, thereby hindering anaerobic digestion performance of waste active sludge (WAS). Phages regulate virocell metabolism by encoding auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) related to energy acquisition and material degradation, supporting hosts survive in harsh environments and play a crucial role in biogeochemical cycles. This study investigated the potential effects of phages on the recovery of WAS anaerobic digestion under PVC stress. We observed a significant alteration in the phage community induced by PVC microplastics. Phages encoded AMGs related to anaerobic digestion and cell growth probably alleviate PVC microplastics inhibition on WAS anaerobic digestion, and 54.2 % of hydrolysis-related GHs and 40.8 % of acidification-related AMGs were actively transcribed in the PVC-exposed group. Additionally, the degradation of chitin and peptidoglycan during hydrolysis and the conversion of glucose to pyruvate during acidification were more susceptible to phages. Prediction of phage-host relationship indicated that the phyla Pseudomonadota were predominantly targeted hosts by hydrolysis-related and acidification-related phages, and PVC toxicity had minimal impact on phage-host interaction. Our findings highlight the importance of phages in anaerobic digestion and provide a novel strategy for using phages in the functional recovery of microplastic-exposed sludge.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bei Zang
- Key Lab of Environmental Engineering, School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China
| | - Hang Zhou
- Key Lab of Environmental Engineering, School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China
| | - Yubin Zhao
- Key Lab of Environmental Engineering, School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China
| | - Daisuke Sano
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-06 Aza-Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan
| | - Rong Chen
- Key Lab of Environmental Engineering, School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China; International S&T Cooperation Center for Urban Alternative Water Resources Development, Key Laboratory of Northwest Water Resource, Environment and Ecology, MOE, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China.
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Martin C, Gitter A, Anantharaman K. Protein Set Transformer: A protein-based genome language model to power high diversity viromics. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.07.26.605391. [PMID: 39131363 PMCID: PMC11312453 DOI: 10.1101/2024.07.26.605391] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/13/2024]
Abstract
Exponential increases in microbial and viral genomic data demand transformational advances in scalable, generalizable frameworks for their interpretation. Standard homology-based functional analyses are hindered by the rapid divergence of microbial and especially viral genomes and proteins that significantly decreases the volume of usable data. Here, we present Protein Set Transformer (PST), a protein-based genome language model that models genomes as sets of proteins without considering sparsely available functional labels. Trained on >100k viruses, PST outperformed other homology- and language model-based approaches for relating viral genomes based on shared protein content. Further, PST demonstrated protein structural and functional awareness by clustering capsid-fold-containing proteins with known capsid proteins and uniquely clustering late gene proteins within related viruses. Our data establish PST as a valuable method for diverse viral genomics, ecology, and evolutionary applications. We posit that the PST framework can be a foundation model for microbial genomics when trained on suitable data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cody Martin
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- Microbiology Doctoral Training Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Anthony Gitter
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI, USA
- Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Karthik Anantharaman
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
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McDonnell B, Parlindungan E, Vasiliauskaite E, Bottacini F, Coughlan K, Krishnaswami LP, Sassen T, Lugli GA, Ventura M, Mastroleo F, Mahony J, van Sinderen D. Viromic and Metagenomic Analyses of Commercial Spirulina Fermentations Reveal Remarkable Microbial Diversity. Viruses 2024; 16:1039. [PMID: 39066202 PMCID: PMC11281685 DOI: 10.3390/v16071039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2024] [Revised: 06/18/2024] [Accepted: 06/25/2024] [Indexed: 07/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Commercially produced cyanobacteria preparations sold under the name spirulina are widely consumed, due to their traditional use as a nutrient-rich foodstuff and subsequent marketing as a superfood. Despite their popularity, the microbial composition of ponds used to cultivate these bacteria is understudied. A total of 19 pond samples were obtained from small-scale spirulina farms and subjected to metagenome and/or virome sequencing, and the results were analysed. A remarkable level of prokaryotic and viral diversity was found to be present in the ponds, with Limnospira sp. and Arthrospira sp. sometimes being notably scarce. A detailed breakdown of prokaryotic and viral components of 15 samples is presented. Twenty putative Limnospira sp.-infecting bacteriophage contigs were identified, though no correlation between the performance of these cultures and the presence of phages was found. The high diversity of these samples prevented the identification of clear trends in sample performance over time, between ponds or when comparing successful and failed fermentations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian McDonnell
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, T12 Y337 Cork, Ireland; (B.M.); (E.V.); (K.C.); (L.P.K.); (J.M.)
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland;
| | - Elvina Parlindungan
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, T12 Y337 Cork, Ireland; (B.M.); (E.V.); (K.C.); (L.P.K.); (J.M.)
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland;
| | - Erika Vasiliauskaite
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, T12 Y337 Cork, Ireland; (B.M.); (E.V.); (K.C.); (L.P.K.); (J.M.)
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland;
| | - Francesca Bottacini
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland;
- Biological Sciences, Munster Technological University, Bishopstown, T12 P928 Cork, Ireland
| | - Keith Coughlan
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, T12 Y337 Cork, Ireland; (B.M.); (E.V.); (K.C.); (L.P.K.); (J.M.)
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland;
| | - Lakshmi Priyadarshini Krishnaswami
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, T12 Y337 Cork, Ireland; (B.M.); (E.V.); (K.C.); (L.P.K.); (J.M.)
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland;
| | - Tom Sassen
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, T12 Y337 Cork, Ireland; (B.M.); (E.V.); (K.C.); (L.P.K.); (J.M.)
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland;
- Microbiology Unit, Nuclear Medical Applications, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, SCK CEN, 2400 Mol, Belgium;
| | - Gabriele Andrea Lugli
- Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences, and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy; (G.A.L.); (M.V.)
- Interdepartmental Research Centre “Microbiome Research Hub”, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy
| | - Marco Ventura
- Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences, and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy; (G.A.L.); (M.V.)
- Interdepartmental Research Centre “Microbiome Research Hub”, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy
| | - Felice Mastroleo
- Microbiology Unit, Nuclear Medical Applications, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, SCK CEN, 2400 Mol, Belgium;
| | - Jennifer Mahony
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, T12 Y337 Cork, Ireland; (B.M.); (E.V.); (K.C.); (L.P.K.); (J.M.)
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland;
| | - Douwe van Sinderen
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, T12 Y337 Cork, Ireland; (B.M.); (E.V.); (K.C.); (L.P.K.); (J.M.)
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland;
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Wang T, Zhang L, Zhang Y, Tong P, Ma W, Wang Y, Liu Y, Su Z. Isolation and identification of specific Enterococcus faecalis phage C-3 and G21-7 against Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli and its application to one-day-old geese. Front Microbiol 2024; 15:1385860. [PMID: 38962142 PMCID: PMC11221357 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1385860] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2024] [Accepted: 05/24/2024] [Indexed: 07/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Colibacillosis caused by Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), including peritonitis, respiratory tract inflammation and ovaritis, is recognized as one of the most common and economically destructive bacterial diseases in poultry worldwide. In this study, the characteristics and inhibitory potential of phages were investigated by double-layer plate method, transmission electron microscopy, whole genome sequencing, bioinformatics analysis and animal experiments. The results showed that phages C-3 and G21-7 isolated from sewage around goose farms infected multiple O serogroups (O1, O2, O18, O78, O157, O26, O145, O178, O103 and O104) Escherichia coli (E.coli) with a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 10 and 1, respectively. According to the one-step growth curve, the incubation time of both bacteriophage C-3 and G21-7 was 10 min. Sensitivity tests confirmed that C-3 and G21-6 are stable at 4 to 50 °C and pH in the range of 4 to 11. Based on morphological and phylogenetic analysis, phages C-3 and G21-7 belong to Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) phage species of the genus Saphexavirus of Herelleviridae family. According to genomic analysis, phage C-3 and G21-7 were 58,097 bp and 57,339 bp in size, respectively, with G+C content of 39.91% and 39.99%, encoding proteins of 97 CDS (105 to 3,993 bp) and 96 CDS (105 to 3,993 bp), and both contained 2 tRNAs. Both phages contained two tail proteins and holin-endolysin system coding genes, and neither carried resistance genes nor virulence factors. Phage mixture has a good safety profile and has shown good survival probability and feed efficiency in both treatment and prophylaxis experiments with one-day-old goslings. These results suggest that phage C-3 and G21-7 can be used as potential antimicrobials for the prevention and treatment of APEC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianli Wang
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
- Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Herbivore Drug Research and Creation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
| | - Ling Zhang
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
- Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Herbivore Drug Research and Creation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
| | - Yi Zhang
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
- Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Herbivore Drug Research and Creation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
| | - Panpan Tong
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
- Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Herbivore Drug Research and Creation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
| | - Wanpeng Ma
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
- Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Herbivore Drug Research and Creation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
| | - Yan Wang
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
- Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Herbivore Drug Research and Creation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
| | - Yifan Liu
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
- Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Herbivore Drug Research and Creation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
| | - Zhanqiang Su
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
- Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Herbivore Drug Research and Creation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang, China
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Hu J, Chen J, Nie Y, Zhou C, Hou Q, Yan X. Characterizing the gut phageome and phage-borne antimicrobial resistance genes in pigs. MICROBIOME 2024; 12:102. [PMID: 38840247 DOI: 10.1186/s40168-024-01818-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 06/07/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Mammalian intestine harbors a mass of phages that play important roles in maintaining gut microbial ecosystem and host health. Pig has become a common model for biomedical research and provides a large amount of meat for human consumption. However, the knowledge of gut phages in pigs is still limited. RESULTS Here, we investigated the gut phageome in 112 pigs from seven pig breeds using PhaBOX strategy based on the metagenomic data. A total of 174,897 non-redundant gut phage genomes were assembled from 112 metagenomes. A total of 33,487 gut phage genomes were classified and these phages mainly belonged to phage families such as Ackermannviridae, Straboviridae, Peduoviridae, Zierdtviridae, Drexlerviridae, and Herelleviridae. The gut phages in seven pig breeds exhibited distinct communities and the gut phage communities changed with the age of pig. These gut phages were predicted to infect a broad range of 212 genera of prokaryotes, such as Candidatus Hamiltonella, Mycoplasma, Colwellia, and Lactobacillus. The data indicated that broad KEGG and CAZy functions were also enriched in gut phages of pigs. The gut phages also carried the antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and the most abundant antimicrobial resistance genotype was diaminopyrimidine resistance. CONCLUSIONS Our research delineates a landscape for gut phages in seven pig breeds and reveals that gut phages serve as a key reservoir of ARGs in pigs. Video Abstract.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Hu
- National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Frontiers Science Center for Animal Breeding and Sustainable Production, College of Animal Sciences and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China
- College of Animal Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350002, China
- The Cooperative Innovation Center for Sustainable Pig Production, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China
- Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Pig Precision Feeding and Feed Safety Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China
| | - Jianwei Chen
- BGI Research, Qingdao, Shandong, 266555, China
- Laboratory of Genomics and Molecular Biomedicine, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark
| | - Yangfan Nie
- National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Frontiers Science Center for Animal Breeding and Sustainable Production, College of Animal Sciences and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China
- College of Animal Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350002, China
| | | | - Qiliang Hou
- National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Frontiers Science Center for Animal Breeding and Sustainable Production, College of Animal Sciences and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China
- The Cooperative Innovation Center for Sustainable Pig Production, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China
- Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Pig Precision Feeding and Feed Safety Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China
| | - Xianghua Yan
- National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Frontiers Science Center for Animal Breeding and Sustainable Production, College of Animal Sciences and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China.
- The Cooperative Innovation Center for Sustainable Pig Production, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China.
- Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Pig Precision Feeding and Feed Safety Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China.
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Boeckaerts D, Stock M, Ferriol-González C, Oteo-Iglesias J, Sanjuán R, Domingo-Calap P, De Baets B, Briers Y. Prediction of Klebsiella phage-host specificity at the strain level. Nat Commun 2024; 15:4355. [PMID: 38778023 PMCID: PMC11111740 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48675-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2023] [Accepted: 05/08/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Phages are increasingly considered promising alternatives to target drug-resistant bacterial pathogens. However, their often-narrow host range can make it challenging to find matching phages against bacteria of interest. Current computational tools do not accurately predict interactions at the strain level in a way that is relevant and properly evaluated for practical use. We present PhageHostLearn, a machine learning system that predicts strain-level interactions between receptor-binding proteins and bacterial receptors for Klebsiella phage-bacteria pairs. We evaluate this system both in silico and in the laboratory, in the clinically relevant setting of finding matching phages against bacterial strains. PhageHostLearn reaches a cross-validated ROC AUC of up to 81.8% in silico and maintains this performance in laboratory validation. Our approach provides a framework for developing and evaluating phage-host prediction methods that are useful in practice, which we believe to be a meaningful contribution to the machine-learning-guided development of phage therapeutics and diagnostics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dimitri Boeckaerts
- Laboratory of Applied Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- KERMIT, Department of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modelling, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Michiel Stock
- KERMIT, Department of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modelling, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Celia Ferriol-González
- Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), Universitat de Valencia-CSIC, Paterna, Spain
| | - Jesús Oteo-Iglesias
- Laboratorio de Referencia e Investigación en Resistencia a Antibióticos e Infecciones Relacionadas con la Asistencia Sanitaria, Centro Nacional de Microbiología, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
- CIBER de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Rafael Sanjuán
- Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), Universitat de Valencia-CSIC, Paterna, Spain
| | - Pilar Domingo-Calap
- Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), Universitat de Valencia-CSIC, Paterna, Spain
| | - Bernard De Baets
- KERMIT, Department of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modelling, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Yves Briers
- Laboratory of Applied Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
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Zhang Y, Chen H, Lian C, Cao L, Guo Y, Wang M, Zhong Z, Li M, Zhang H, Li C. Insights into phage-bacteria interaction in cold seep Gigantidas platifrons through metagenomics and transcriptome analyses. Sci Rep 2024; 14:10540. [PMID: 38719945 PMCID: PMC11078923 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-61272-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/03/2024] [Indexed: 05/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Viruses are crucial for regulating deep-sea microbial communities and biogeochemical cycles. However, their roles are still less characterized in deep-sea holobionts. Bathymodioline mussels are endemic species inhabiting cold seeps and harboring endosymbionts in gill epithelial cells for nutrition. This study unveiled a diverse array of viruses in the gill tissues of Gigantidas platifrons mussels and analyzed the viral metagenome and transcriptome from the gill tissues of Gigantidas platifrons mussels collected from a cold seep in the South Sea. The mussel gills contained various viruses including Baculoviridae, Rountreeviridae, Myoviridae and Siphovirdae, but the active viromes were Myoviridae, Siphoviridae, and Podoviridae belonging to the order Caudovirales. The overall viral community structure showed significant variation among environments with different methane concentrations. Transcriptome analysis indicated high expression of viral structural genes, integrase, and restriction endonuclease genes in a high methane concentration environment, suggesting frequent virus infection and replication. Furthermore, two viruses (GP-phage-contig14 and GP-phage-contig72) interacted with Gigantidas platifrons methanotrophic gill symbionts (bathymodiolin mussels host intracellular methanotrophic Gammaproteobacteria in their gills), showing high expression levels, and have huge different expression in different methane concentrations. Additionally, single-stranded DNA viruses may play a potential auxiliary role in the virus-host interaction using indirect bioinformatics methods. Moreover, the Cro and DNA methylase genes had phylogenetic similarity between the virus and Gigantidas platifrons methanotrophic gill symbionts. This study also explored a variety of viruses in the gill tissues of Gigantidas platifrons and revealed that bacteria interacted with the viruses during the symbiosis with Gigantidas platifrons. This study provides fundamental insights into the interplay of microorganisms within Gigantidas platifrons mussels in deep sea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan Zhang
- Center of Deep Sea Research, and CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
| | - Hao Chen
- Center of Deep Sea Research, and CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
| | - Chao Lian
- Center of Deep Sea Research, and CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
| | - Lei Cao
- Center of Deep Sea Research, and CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
| | - Yang Guo
- Center of Deep Sea Research, and CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
| | - Minxiao Wang
- Center of Deep Sea Research, and CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China.
| | - Zhaoshan Zhong
- Center of Deep Sea Research, and CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
| | - Mengna Li
- Center of Deep Sea Research, and CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
- National Deep Sea Center, Qingdao, 266071, China
| | - Huan Zhang
- Center of Deep Sea Research, and CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
- National Deep Sea Center, Qingdao, 266071, China
| | - Chaolun Li
- Center of Deep Sea Research, and CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China.
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China.
- South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
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Xie K, Lin B, Sun X, Zhu P, Liu C, Liu G, Cao X, Pan J, Qiu S, Yuan X, Liang M, Jiang J, Yuan L. Identification and classification of the genomes of novel microviruses in poultry slaughterhouse. Front Microbiol 2024; 15:1393153. [PMID: 38756731 PMCID: PMC11096546 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1393153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2024] [Accepted: 04/11/2024] [Indexed: 05/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Microviridae is a family of phages with circular ssDNA genomes and they are widely found in various environments and organisms. In this study, virome techniques were employed to explore potential members of Microviridae in a poultry slaughterhouse, leading to the identification of 98 novel and complete microvirus genomes. Using a similarity clustering network classification approach, these viruses were found to belong to at least 6 new subfamilies within Microviridae and 3 higher-level taxonomic units. Genome size, GC content and genome structure of these new taxa showed evident regularities, validating the rationality of our classification method. Our method can divide microviruses into about 45 additional detailed clusters, which may serve as a new standard for classifying Microviridae members. Furthermore, by addressing the scarcity of host information for microviruses, the current study significantly broadened their host range and discovered over 20 possible new hosts, including important pathogenic bacteria such as Helicobacter pylori and Vibrio cholerae, as well as different taxa demonstrated different host specificities. The findings of this study effectively expand the diversity of the Microviridae family, providing new insights for their classification and identification. Additionally, it offers a novel perspective for monitoring and controlling pathogenic microorganisms in poultry slaughterhouse environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keming Xie
- School of Life Sciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Benfu Lin
- Huadu District Animal Health Supervision Institution, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Xinyu Sun
- School of Life Sciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Peng Zhu
- Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- College of Marine Ecology and Environment, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China
| | - Chang Liu
- Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Guangfeng Liu
- Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Xudong Cao
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Jingqi Pan
- School of Life Sciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Suiping Qiu
- School of Life Sciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Xiaoqi Yuan
- School of Life Sciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Mengshi Liang
- School of Life Sciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Jingzhe Jiang
- School of Life Sciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Lihong Yuan
- School of Life Sciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
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10
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Liu X, Liu Y, Liu J, Zhang H, Shan C, Guo Y, Gong X, Cui M, Li X, Tang M. Correlation between the gut microbiome and neurodegenerative diseases: a review of metagenomics evidence. Neural Regen Res 2024; 19:833-845. [PMID: 37843219 PMCID: PMC10664138 DOI: 10.4103/1673-5374.382223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2023] [Revised: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/17/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023] Open
Abstract
A growing body of evidence suggests that the gut microbiota contributes to the development of neurodegenerative diseases via the microbiota-gut-brain axis. As a contributing factor, microbiota dysbiosis always occurs in pathological changes of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. High-throughput sequencing technology has helped to reveal that the bidirectional communication between the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system is facilitated by the microbiota's diverse microorganisms, and for both neuroimmune and neuroendocrine systems. Here, we summarize the bioinformatics analysis and wet-biology validation for the gut metagenomics in neurodegenerative diseases, with an emphasis on multi-omics studies and the gut virome. The pathogen-associated signaling biomarkers for identifying brain disorders and potential therapeutic targets are also elucidated. Finally, we discuss the role of diet, prebiotics, probiotics, postbiotics and exercise interventions in remodeling the microbiome and reducing the symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyan Liu
- School of Life Sciences, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Yi Liu
- School of Life Sciences, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China
- Institute of Animal Husbandry, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Junlin Liu
- School of Life Sciences, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Hantao Zhang
- School of Life Sciences, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Chaofan Shan
- School of Life Sciences, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Yinglu Guo
- School of Life Sciences, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Xun Gong
- Department of Rheumatology & Immunology, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Mengmeng Cui
- Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, Taian, Shandong Province, China
| | - Xiubin Li
- Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, Taian, Shandong Province, China
| | - Min Tang
- School of Life Sciences, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China
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11
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Zhao H, Yang M, Fan X, Gui Q, Yi H, Tong Y, Xiao W. A Metagenomic Investigation of Potential Health Risks and Element Cycling Functions of Bacteria and Viruses in Wastewater Treatment Plants. Viruses 2024; 16:535. [PMID: 38675877 PMCID: PMC11054999 DOI: 10.3390/v16040535] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2024] [Revised: 03/27/2024] [Accepted: 03/28/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
The concentration of viruses in sewage sludge is significantly higher (10-1000-fold) than that found in natural environments, posing a potential risk for human and animal health. However, the composition of these viruses and their role in the transfer of pathogenic factors, as well as their role in the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles remain poorly understood. In this study, we employed a shotgun metagenomic approach to investigate the pathogenic bacteria and viral composition and function in two wastewater treatment plants located on a campus. Our analysis revealed the presence of 1334 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) across six sludge samples, with 242 ASVs (41.22% of total reads) identified as pathogenic bacteria. Arcobacter was found to be the most dominant pathogen accounting for 6.79% of total reads. The virome analysis identified 613 viral genera with Aorunvirus being the most abundant genus at 41.85%. Approximately 0.66% of these viruses were associated with human and animal diseases. More than 60% of the virome consisted of lytic phages. Host prediction analysis revealed that the phages primarily infected Lactobacillus (37.11%), Streptococcus (21.11%), and Staphylococcus (7.11%). Furthermore, our investigation revealed an abundance of auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) involved in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling within the virome. We also detected a total of 113 antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), covering major classes of antibiotics across all samples analyzed. Additionally, our findings indicated the presence of virulence factors including the clpP gene accounting for approximately 4.78%, along with toxin genes such as the RecT gene representing approximately 73.48% of all detected virulence factors and toxin genes among all samples analyzed. This study expands our understanding regarding both pathogenic bacteria and viruses present within sewage sludge while providing valuable insights into their ecological functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haozhe Zhao
- Yunnan Institute of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China; (H.Z.); (M.Y.); (X.F.); (Q.G.); (H.Y.)
| | - Mingfei Yang
- Yunnan Institute of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China; (H.Z.); (M.Y.); (X.F.); (Q.G.); (H.Y.)
| | - Xiang Fan
- Yunnan Institute of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China; (H.Z.); (M.Y.); (X.F.); (Q.G.); (H.Y.)
| | - Qian Gui
- Yunnan Institute of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China; (H.Z.); (M.Y.); (X.F.); (Q.G.); (H.Y.)
| | - Hao Yi
- Yunnan Institute of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China; (H.Z.); (M.Y.); (X.F.); (Q.G.); (H.Y.)
| | - Yigang Tong
- College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Wei Xiao
- Yunnan Institute of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China; (H.Z.); (M.Y.); (X.F.); (Q.G.); (H.Y.)
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12
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Cao Z, Fan D, Sun Y, Huang Z, Li Y, Su R, Zhang F, Li Q, Yang H, Zhang F, Miao Y, Lan P, Wu X, Zuo T. The gut ileal mucosal virome is disturbed in patients with Crohn's disease and exacerbates intestinal inflammation in mice. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1638. [PMID: 38388538 PMCID: PMC10884039 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45794-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Gut bacteriome dysbiosis is known to be implicated in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Crohn's disease (CD) is an IBD subtype with extensive mucosal inflammation, yet the mucosal virome, an empirical modulator of the bacteriome and mucosal immunity, remains largely unclear regarding its composition and role. Here, we exploited trans-cohort CD patients and healthy individuals to compositionally and functionally investigate the small bowel (terminal ileum) virome and bacteriome. The CD ileal virome was characterised by an under-representation of both lytic and temperate bacteriophages (especially those targeting bacterial pathogens), particularly in patients with flare-up. Meanwhile, the virome-bacteriome ecology in CD ileal mucosa was featured by a lack of Bifidobacterium- and Lachnospiraceae-led mutualistic interactions between bacteria and bacteriophages; surprisingly it was more pronounced in CD remission than flare-up, underlining the refractory and recurrent nature of mucosal inflammation in CD. Lastly, we substantiated that ileal virions from CD patients causally exacerbated intestinal inflammation in IBD mouse models, by reshaping a gut virome-bacteriome ecology preceding intestinal inflammation (microbial trigger) and augmenting microbial sensing/defence pathways in the intestine cells (host response). Altogether, our results highlight the significance of mucosal virome in CD pathogenesis and importance of mucosal virome restoration in CD therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhirui Cao
- Key Laboratory of Human Microbiome and Chronic Diseases (Sun Yat-sen University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Centre for Faecal Microbiota Transplantation Research, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Biomedical Innovation Centre, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Dejun Fan
- Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Department of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Diseases, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Yang Sun
- Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
- Yunnan Province Clinical Research Centre for Digestive Diseases, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
- Yunnan Geriatric Medical Centre, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
| | - Ziyu Huang
- Key Laboratory of Human Microbiome and Chronic Diseases (Sun Yat-sen University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Centre for Faecal Microbiota Transplantation Research, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Biomedical Innovation Centre, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Yue Li
- Key Laboratory of Human Microbiome and Chronic Diseases (Sun Yat-sen University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Centre for Faecal Microbiota Transplantation Research, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Biomedical Innovation Centre, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Runping Su
- Key Laboratory of Human Microbiome and Chronic Diseases (Sun Yat-sen University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Centre for Faecal Microbiota Transplantation Research, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Biomedical Innovation Centre, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Feng Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Human Microbiome and Chronic Diseases (Sun Yat-sen University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Centre for Faecal Microbiota Transplantation Research, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Biomedical Innovation Centre, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Qing Li
- Department of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Hongju Yang
- Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, China
- Yunnan Geriatric Medical Centre, Kunming, Yunnan, China
| | - Fen Zhang
- Department of Food Science and Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yinglei Miao
- Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, China
- Yunnan Province Clinical Research Centre for Digestive Diseases, Kunming, Yunnan, China
| | - Ping Lan
- Key Laboratory of Human Microbiome and Chronic Diseases (Sun Yat-sen University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Centre for Faecal Microbiota Transplantation Research, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Biomedical Innovation Centre, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Diseases, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Xiaojian Wu
- Key Laboratory of Human Microbiome and Chronic Diseases (Sun Yat-sen University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
- Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
- Centre for Faecal Microbiota Transplantation Research, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
- Biomedical Innovation Centre, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Diseases, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
- Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
| | - Tao Zuo
- Key Laboratory of Human Microbiome and Chronic Diseases (Sun Yat-sen University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
- Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
- Centre for Faecal Microbiota Transplantation Research, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
- Biomedical Innovation Centre, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
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Mahony J. Biological and bioinformatic tools for the discovery of unknown phage-host combinations. Curr Opin Microbiol 2024; 77:102426. [PMID: 38246125 DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2024.102426] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 01/23/2024]
Abstract
The field of microbial ecology has been transformed by metagenomics in recent decades and has culminated in vast datasets that facilitate the bioinformatic dissection of complex microbial communities. Recently, attention has turned from defining the microbiota composition to the interactions and relationships that occur between members of the microbiota. Within complex microbiota, the identification of bacteriophage-host combinations has been a major challenge. Recent developments in artificial intelligence tools to predict protein structure and function as well as the relationships between bacteria and their infecting bacteriophages allow a strategic approach to identifying and validating phage-host relationships. However, biological validation of these predictions remains essential and will serve to improve the existing predictive tools. In this review, I provide an overview of the most recent developments in both bioinformatic and experimental approaches to predicting and experimentally validating unknown phage-host combinations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Mahony
- School of Microbiology & APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Western Road, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland.
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Chen G, Jiang J, Sun Y. RNAVirHost: a machine learning-based method for predicting hosts of RNA viruses through viral genomes. Gigascience 2024; 13:giae059. [PMID: 39172545 PMCID: PMC11340644 DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giae059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2024] [Revised: 05/29/2024] [Accepted: 07/23/2024] [Indexed: 08/24/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The high-throughput sequencing technologies have revolutionized the identification of novel RNA viruses. Given that viruses are infectious agents, identifying hosts of these new viruses carries significant implications for public health and provides valuable insights into the dynamics of the microbiome. However, determining the hosts of these newly discovered viruses is not always straightforward, especially in the case of viruses detected in environmental samples. Even for host-associated samples, it is not always correct to assign the sample origin as the host of the identified viruses. The process of assigning hosts to RNA viruses remains challenging due to their high mutation rates and vast diversity. RESULTS In this study, we introduce RNAVirHost, a machine learning-based tool that predicts the hosts of RNA viruses solely based on viral genomes. RNAVirHost is a hierarchical classification framework that predicts hosts at different taxonomic levels. We demonstrate the superior accuracy of RNAVirHost in predicting hosts of RNA viruses through comprehensive comparisons with various state-of-the-art techniques. When applying to viruses from novel genera, RNAVirHost achieved the highest accuracy of 84.3%, outperforming the alignment-based strategy by 12.1%. CONCLUSIONS The application of machine learning models has proven beneficial in predicting hosts of RNA viruses. By integrating genomic traits and sequence homologies, RNAVirHost provides a cost-effective and efficient strategy for host prediction. We believe that RNAVirHost can greatly assist in RNA virus analyses and contribute to pandemic surveillance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guowei Chen
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong (SAR), China
| | - Jingzhe Jiang
- Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation & Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Guangzhou 510300, China
| | - Yanni Sun
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong (SAR), China
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Yin H, Wu S, Tan J, Guo Q, Li M, Guo J, Wang Y, Jiang X, Zhu H. IPEV: identification of prokaryotic and eukaryotic virus-derived sequences in virome using deep learning. Gigascience 2024; 13:giae018. [PMID: 38649300 PMCID: PMC11034026 DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giae018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2023] [Revised: 03/14/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The virome obtained through virus-like particle enrichment contains a mixture of prokaryotic and eukaryotic virus-derived fragments. Accurate identification and classification of these elements are crucial to understanding their roles and functions in microbial communities. However, the rapid mutation rates of viral genomes pose challenges in developing high-performance tools for classification, potentially limiting downstream analyses. FINDINGS We present IPEV, a novel method to distinguish prokaryotic and eukaryotic viruses in viromes, with a 2-dimensional convolutional neural network combining trinucleotide pair relative distance and frequency. Cross-validation assessments of IPEV demonstrate its state-of-the-art precision, significantly improving the F1-score by approximately 22% on an independent test set compared to existing methods when query viruses share less than 30% sequence similarity with known viruses. Furthermore, IPEV outperforms other methods in accuracy on marine and gut virome samples based on annotations by sequence alignments. IPEV reduces runtime by at most 1,225 times compared to existing methods under the same computing configuration. We also utilized IPEV to analyze longitudinal samples and found that the gut virome exhibits a higher degree of temporal stability than previously observed in persistent personal viromes, providing novel insights into the resilience of the gut virome in individuals. CONCLUSIONS IPEV is a high-performance, user-friendly tool that assists biologists in identifying and classifying prokaryotic and eukaryotic viruses within viromes. The tool is available at https://github.com/basehc/IPEV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hengchuang Yin
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, and Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Shufang Wu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, and Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Jie Tan
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, and Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Qian Guo
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, and Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Mo Li
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, and Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Jinyuan Guo
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, and Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
| | - Yaqi Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, and Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Xiaoqing Jiang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, and Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Huaiqiu Zhu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, and Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
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Wang D, Shang J, Lin H, Liang J, Wang C, Sun Y, Bai Y, Qu J. Identifying ARG-carrying bacteriophages in a lake replenished by reclaimed water using deep learning techniques. WATER RESEARCH 2024; 248:120859. [PMID: 37976954 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120859] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2023] [Revised: 09/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023]
Abstract
As important mobile genetic elements, phages support the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Previous analyses of metaviromes or metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) failed to assess the extent of ARGs transferred by phages, particularly in the generation of antibiotic pathogens. Therefore, we have developed a bioinformatic pipeline that utilizes deep learning techniques to identify ARG-carrying phages and predict their hosts, with a special focus on pathogens. Using this method, we discovered that the predominant types of ARGs carried by temperate phages in a typical landscape lake, which is fully replenished by reclaimed water, were related to multidrug resistance and β-lactam antibiotics. MAGs containing virulent factors (VFs) were predicted to serve as hosts for these ARG-carrying phages, which suggests that the phages may have the potential to transfer ARGs. In silico analysis showed a significant positive correlation between temperate phages and host pathogens (R = 0.503, p < 0.001), which was later confirmed by qPCR. Interestingly, these MAGs were found to be more abundant than those containing both ARGs and VFs, especially in December and March. Seasonal variations were observed in the abundance of phages harboring ARGs (from 5.62 % to 21.02 %) and chromosomes harboring ARGs (from 18.01 % to 30.94 %). In contrast, the abundance of plasmids harboring ARGs remained unchanged. In summary, this study leverages deep learning to analyze phage-transferred ARGs and demonstrates an alternative method to track the production of potential antibiotic-resistant pathogens by metagenomics that can be extended to microbiological risk assessment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Donglin Wang
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
| | - Jiayu Shang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Hui Lin
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
| | - Jinsong Liang
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Chenchen Wang
- School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China; Tianjin Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science and Technology, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China
| | - Yanni Sun
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
| | - Yaohui Bai
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
| | - Jiuhui Qu
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
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Shuai X, Zhou Z, Ba X, Lin Y, Lin Z, Liu Z, Yu X, Zhou J, Zeng G, Ge Z, Chen H. Bacteriophages: Vectors of or weapons against the transmission of antibiotic resistance genes in hospital wastewater systems? WATER RESEARCH 2024; 248:120833. [PMID: 37952327 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120833] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Revised: 10/26/2023] [Accepted: 11/03/2023] [Indexed: 11/14/2023]
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance poses a serious threat to human health and is responsible for the death of millions of people annually. Hospital wastewater is an important hotspot for antibiotic-resistance genes (ARGs) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB). However, little is known about the relationship between phages and ARGs in hospital wastewater systems (HWS). In the present study, the viral diversity of 12 HWSs using data from public metagenomic databases was investigated. Viruses were widely found in both the influent and effluent of each HWS. A total of 45 unique ARGs were carried by 85 viral contigs, which accounted for only 0.14% of the total viral populations, implying that ARGs were not commonly present in phages. Three efflux pump genes were identified as shared between phages and bacterial genomes. However, the predominant types of ARGs in HWS such as aminoglycoside- and beta-lactam-resistance genes were rarely found in phages. Based on CRISPR spacer and tRNA matches, interactions between 171 viral contigs and 60 antibiotic-resistant genomes were predicted, including interactions involving phages and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus_B faecium or beta-lactam-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. More than half (56.1%) of these viral contigs indicated lytic and none of them carried ARGs. As the vOTUs in this study had few ARGs and were primarily lytic, HWS may be a valuable source for phage discovery. Future studies will be able to experimentally validate these sequence-based results to confirm the suitability of HWS phages for pathogen control measures in wastewater.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinyi Shuai
- Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Zhenchao Zhou
- Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Xiaoliang Ba
- Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Yanhan Lin
- Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Zejun Lin
- Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Zhe Liu
- Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Xi Yu
- Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Jinyu Zhou
- Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Guangshu Zeng
- Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Ziye Ge
- Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Hong Chen
- Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China; International Cooperation Base of Environmental Pollution and Ecological Health, Science and Technology Agency of Zhejiang, Zhejiang University, China; Key Laboratory of Environment Remediation and Ecological Health, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
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18
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Du ZH, Zhong JP, Liu Y, Li JQ. Prokaryotic virus host prediction with graph contrastive augmentaion. PLoS Comput Biol 2023; 19:e1011671. [PMID: 38039280 PMCID: PMC10691718 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011671] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2023] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 12/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Prokaryotic viruses, also known as bacteriophages, play crucial roles in regulating microbial communities and have the potential for phage therapy applications. Accurate prediction of phage-host interactions is essential for understanding the dynamics of these viruses and their impacts on bacterial populations. Numerous computational methods have been developed to tackle this challenging task. However, most existing prediction models can be constrained due to the substantial number of unknown interactions in comparison to the constrained diversity of available training data. To solve the problem, we introduce a model for prokaryotic virus host prediction with graph contrastive augmentation (PHPGCA). Specifically, we construct a comprehensive heterogeneous graph by integrating virus-virus protein similarity and virus-host DNA sequence similarity information. As the backbone encoder for learning node representations in the virus-prokaryote graph, we employ LGCN, a state-of-the-art graph embedding technique. Additionally, we apply graph contrastive learning to augment the node representations without the need for additional labels. We further conducted two case studies aimed at predicting the host range of multi-species phages, helping to understand the phage ecology and evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhi-Hua Du
- College of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guang-dong, China
| | - Jun-Peng Zhong
- College of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guang-dong, China
| | - Yun Liu
- College of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guang-dong, China
| | - Jian-Qiang Li
- College of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guang-dong, China
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19
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Tan Y, Yu P, Huang D, Yuan MM, Yu Z, Lu H, Alvarez PJJ, Zhu L. Enhanced Bacterium-Phage Symbiosis in Attached Microbial Aggregates on a Membrane Surface Facing Elevated Hydraulic Stress. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:17324-17337. [PMID: 37930060 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c05452] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2023]
Abstract
Phages are increasingly recognized for their importance in microbial aggregates, including their influence on microbial ecosystem services and biotechnology applications. However, the adaptive strategies and ecological functions of phages in different aggregates remain largely unexplored. Herein, we used membrane bioreactors to investigate bacterium-phage interactions and related microbial functions within suspended and attached microbial aggregates (SMA vs AMA). SMA and AMA represent distinct microbial habitats where bacterial communities display distinct patterns in terms of dominant species, keystone species, and bacterial networks. However, bacteria and phages in both aggregates exhibited high lysogenicity, with 60% lysogenic phages in the virome and 70% lysogenic metagenome-assembled genomes of bacteria. Moreover, substantial phages exhibited broad host ranges (34% in SMA and 42% in AMA) and closely interacted with habitat generalist species (43% in SMA and 49% in AMA) as adaptive strategies in stressful operation environments. Following a mutualistic pattern, phage-carried auxiliary metabolic genes (pAMGs; 238 types in total) presumably contributed to the bacterial survival and aggregate stability. The SMA-pAMGs were mainly associated with energy metabolism, while the AMA-pAMGs were mainly associated with antioxidant biosynthesis and the synthesis of extracellular polymeric substances, representing habitat-dependent patterns. Overall, this study advanced our understanding of phage adaptive strategies in microbial aggregate habitats and emphasized the importance of bacterium-phage symbiosis in the stability of microbial aggregates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yixiao Tan
- College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Pingfeng Yu
- College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, Jiashan 314100, China
| | - Dan Huang
- College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Mengting Maggie Yuan
- Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Zhuodong Yu
- College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Huijie Lu
- College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Pedro J J Alvarez
- Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, United States
| | - Liang Zhu
- College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, Jiashan 314100, China
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20
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Li L, Hu Z, Tan G, Fan J, Chen Y, Xiao Y, Wu S, Zhi Q, Liu T, Yin H, Tang Q. Enhancing plant growth in biofertilizer-amended soil through nitrogen-transforming microbial communities. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1259853. [PMID: 38034579 PMCID: PMC10683058 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1259853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2023] [Accepted: 10/13/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023]
Abstract
Biofertilizers have immense potential for enhancing agricultural productivity. However, there is still a need for clarification regarding the specific mechanisms through which these biofertilizers improve soil properties and stimulate plant growth. In this research, a bacterial agent was utilized to enhance plant growth and investigate the microbial modulation mechanism of soil nutrient turnover using metagenomic technology. The results demonstrated a significant increase in soil fast-acting nitrogen (by 46.7%) and fast-acting phosphorus (by 88.6%) upon application of the bacterial agent. This finding suggests that stimulated soil microbes contribute to enhanced nutrient transformation, ultimately leading to improved plant growth. Furthermore, the application of the bacterial agent had a notable impact on the accumulation of key genes involved in nitrogen cycling. Notably, it enhanced nitrification genes (amo, hao, and nar), while denitrification genes (nir and nor) showed a slight decrease. This indicates that ammonium oxidation may be the primary pathway for increasing fast-acting nitrogen in soils. Additionally, the bacterial agent influenced the composition and functional structure of the soil microbial community. Moreover, the metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) obtained from the soil microbial communities exhibited complementary metabolic processes, suggesting mutual nutrient exchange. These MAGs contained widely distributed and highly abundant genes encoding plant growth promotion (PGP) traits. These findings emphasize how soil microbial communities can enhance vegetation growth by increasing nutrient availability and regulating plant hormone production. This effect can be further enhanced by introducing inoculated microbial agents. In conclusion, this study provides novel insights into the mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of biofertilizers on soil properties and plant growth. The significant increase in nutrient availability, modulation of key genes involved in nitrogen cycling, and the presence of MAGs encoding PGP traits highlight the potential of biofertilizers to improve agricultural practices. These findings have important implications for enhancing agricultural sustainability and productivity, with positive societal and environmental impacts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liangzhi Li
- College of Plant Protection, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
- School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, China
- Key Laboratory of Biometallurgy of Ministry of Education, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Zhengrong Hu
- Hunan Tobacco Research Institute, Changsha, China
| | - Ge Tan
- China Tobacco Hunan Industrial Co., Ltd., Changsha, China
| | - Jianqiang Fan
- Technology Center, China Tobacco Fujian Industrial Co., Ltd., Xiamen, Fujian, China
| | - Yiqiang Chen
- Technology Center, China Tobacco Fujian Industrial Co., Ltd., Xiamen, Fujian, China
| | - Yansong Xiao
- Chenzhou Tobacco Company of Hunan Province, Chenzhou, China
| | - Shaolong Wu
- Hunan Tobacco Research Institute, Changsha, China
| | - Qiqi Zhi
- School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, China
- Key Laboratory of Biometallurgy of Ministry of Education, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Tianbo Liu
- Hunan Tobacco Research Institute, Changsha, China
| | - Huaqun Yin
- School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, China
- Key Laboratory of Biometallurgy of Ministry of Education, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Qianjun Tang
- College of Plant Protection, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
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21
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Zhang YZ, Liu Y, Bai Z, Fujimoto K, Uematsu S, Imoto S. Zero-shot-capable identification of phage-host relationships with whole-genome sequence representation by contrastive learning. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:bbad239. [PMID: 37466138 PMCID: PMC10516345 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad239] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Revised: 05/17/2023] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Accurately identifying phage-host relationships from their genome sequences is still challenging, especially for those phages and hosts with less homologous sequences. In this work, focusing on identifying the phage-host relationships at the species and genus level, we propose a contrastive learning based approach to learn whole-genome sequence embeddings that can take account of phage-host interactions (PHIs). Contrastive learning is used to make phages infecting the same hosts close to each other in the new representation space. Specifically, we rephrase whole-genome sequences with frequency chaos game representation (FCGR) and learn latent embeddings that 'encapsulate' phages and host relationships through contrastive learning. The contrastive learning method works well on the imbalanced dataset. Based on the learned embeddings, a proposed pipeline named CL4PHI can predict known hosts and unseen hosts in training. We compare our method with two recently proposed state-of-the-art learning-based methods on their benchmark datasets. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method using contrastive learning improves the prediction accuracy on known hosts and demonstrates a zero-shot prediction capability on unseen hosts. In terms of potential applications, the rapid pace of genome sequencing across different species has resulted in a vast amount of whole-genome sequencing data that require efficient computational methods for identifying phage-host interactions. The proposed approach is expected to address this need by efficiently processing whole-genome sequences of phages and prokaryotic hosts and capturing features related to phage-host relationships for genome sequence representation. This approach can be used to accelerate the discovery of phage-host interactions and aid in the development of phage-based therapies for infectious diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yao-zhong Zhang
- Division of Health Medical Intelligence, Human Genome Center, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Shirokanedai 4-6-1, Minato-ku, 108-8639 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yunjie Liu
- Division of Health Medical Intelligence, Human Genome Center, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Shirokanedai 4-6-1, Minato-ku, 108-8639 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Zeheng Bai
- Division of Health Medical Intelligence, Human Genome Center, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Shirokanedai 4-6-1, Minato-ku, 108-8639 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Kosuke Fujimoto
- Department of Immunology and Genomics, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka Metropolitan University, Asahi-machi 1-4-3, Abeno-ku, 545-8585 Osaka, Japan
- Division of Metagenome Medicine, Human Genome Center, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Shirokanedai 4-6-1, Minato-ku, 108-8639 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Satoshi Uematsu
- Department of Immunology and Genomics, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka Metropolitan University, Asahi-machi 1-4-3, Abeno-ku, 545-8585 Osaka, Japan
- Division of Metagenome Medicine, Human Genome Center, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Shirokanedai 4-6-1, Minato-ku, 108-8639 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Seiya Imoto
- Division of Health Medical Intelligence, Human Genome Center, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Shirokanedai 4-6-1, Minato-ku, 108-8639 Tokyo, Japan
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22
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Shang J, Peng C, Liao H, Tang X, Sun Y. PhaBOX: a web server for identifying and characterizing phage contigs in metagenomic data. BIOINFORMATICS ADVANCES 2023; 3:vbad101. [PMID: 37641717 PMCID: PMC10460485 DOI: 10.1093/bioadv/vbad101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Revised: 07/05/2023] [Accepted: 08/01/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
Motivation There is accumulating evidence showing the important roles of bacteriophages (phages) in regulating the structure and functions of the microbiome. However, lacking an easy-to-use and integrated phage analysis software hampers microbiome-related research from incorporating phages in the analysis. Results In this work, we developed a web server, PhaBOX, which can comprehensively identify and analyze phage contigs in metagenomic data. It supports integrated phage analysis, including phage contig identification from the metagenomic assembly, lifestyle prediction, taxonomic classification, and host prediction. Instead of treating the algorithms as a black box, PhaBOX also supports visualization of the essential features for making predictions. The web server is designed with a user-friendly graphical interface that enables both informatics-trained and nonspecialist users to analyze phages in microbiome data with ease. Availability and implementation The web server of PhaBOX is available via: https://phage.ee.cityu.edu.hk. The source code of PhaBOX is available at: https://github.com/KennthShang/PhaBOX.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiayu Shang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR), China
| | - Cheng Peng
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR), China
| | - Herui Liao
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR), China
| | - Xubo Tang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR), China
| | - Yanni Sun
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR), China
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23
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Avellaneda-Franco L, Dahlman S, Barr JJ. The gut virome and the relevance of temperate phages in human health. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2023; 13:1241058. [PMID: 37577374 PMCID: PMC10413269 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1241058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 08/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Alterations in the gut virome impact human health. Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, dominate the gut virome and are mainly composed by virulent and temperate phages. While virulent phages exclusively replicate within and lyse their bacterial host's cell, temperate phages switch from an integrated state residing within their bacterial host's chromosome to an induced free virion state via an induction event. How often do these induction events occur and what are their implications on gut homeostasis? Here, we summarize the current knowledge of the gut virome based on metagenomics and present how the proportion of induced temperate phages varies amongst individuals, age, and disease states. Finally, we highlight the importance of building upon classical culture-dependent techniques and sequencing approaches to improve our understanding of temperate phages to enable their potential therapeutic use.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jeremy J. Barr
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
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24
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Shang J, Peng C, Tang X, Sun Y. PhaVIP: Phage VIrion Protein classification based on chaos game representation and Vision Transformer. Bioinformatics 2023; 39:i30-i39. [PMID: 37387136 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btad229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/01/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION As viruses that mainly infect bacteria, phages are key players across a wide range of ecosystems. Analyzing phage proteins is indispensable for understanding phages' functions and roles in microbiomes. High-throughput sequencing enables us to obtain phages in different microbiomes with low cost. However, compared to the fast accumulation of newly identified phages, phage protein classification remains difficult. In particular, a fundamental need is to annotate virion proteins, the structural proteins, such as major tail, baseplate, etc. Although there are experimental methods for virion protein identification, they are too expensive or time-consuming, leaving a large number of proteins unclassified. Thus, there is a great demand to develop a computational method for fast and accurate phage virion protein (PVP) classification. RESULTS In this work, we adapted the state-of-the-art image classification model, Vision Transformer, to conduct virion protein classification. By encoding protein sequences into unique images using chaos game representation, we can leverage Vision Transformer to learn both local and global features from sequence "images". Our method, PhaVIP, has two main functions: classifying PVP and non-PVP sequences and annotating the types of PVP, such as capsid and tail. We tested PhaVIP on several datasets with increasing difficulty and benchmarked it against alternative tools. The experimental results show that PhaVIP has superior performance. After validating the performance of PhaVIP, we investigated two applications that can use the output of PhaVIP: phage taxonomy classification and phage host prediction. The results showed the benefit of using classified proteins over all proteins. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The web server of PhaVIP is available via: https://phage.ee.cityu.edu.hk/phavip. The source code of PhaVIP is available via: https://github.com/KennthShang/PhaVIP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiayu Shang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR), China
| | - Cheng Peng
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR), China
| | - Xubo Tang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR), China
| | - Yanni Sun
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR), China
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25
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Bajiya N, Dhall A, Aggarwal S, Raghava GPS. Advances in the field of phage-based therapy with special emphasis on computational resources. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:6961791. [PMID: 36575815 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbac574] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Revised: 11/07/2022] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
In the current era, one of the major challenges is to manage the treatment of drug/antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Phage therapy, a century-old technique, may serve as an alternative to antibiotics in treating bacterial infections caused by drug-resistant strains of bacteria. In this review, a systematic attempt has been made to summarize phage-based therapy in depth. This review has been divided into the following two sections: general information and computer-aided phage therapy (CAPT). In the case of general information, we cover the history of phage therapy, the mechanism of action, the status of phage-based products (approved and clinical trials) and the challenges. This review emphasizes CAPT, where we have covered primary phage-associated resources, phage prediction methods and pipelines. This review covers a wide range of databases and resources, including viral genomes and proteins, phage receptors, host genomes of phages, phage-host interactions and lytic proteins. In the post-genomic era, identifying the most suitable phage for lysing a drug-resistant strain of bacterium is crucial for developing alternate treatments for drug-resistant bacteria and this remains a challenging problem. Thus, we compile all phage-associated prediction methods that include the prediction of phages for a bacterial strain, the host for a phage and the identification of interacting phage-host pairs. Most of these methods have been developed using machine learning and deep learning techniques. This review also discussed recent advances in the field of CAPT, where we briefly describe computational tools available for predicting phage virions, the life cycle of phages and prophage identification. Finally, we describe phage-based therapy's advantages, challenges and opportunities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nisha Bajiya
- Department of Computational Biology, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Okhla Phase 3, New Delhi, 110020, India
| | - Anjali Dhall
- Department of Computational Biology, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Okhla Phase 3, New Delhi, 110020, India
| | - Suchet Aggarwal
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Okhla Phase 3, New Delhi, 110020, India
| | - Gajendra P S Raghava
- Department of Computational Biology, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Okhla Phase 3, New Delhi, 110020, India
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26
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Shang J, Tang X, Sun Y. PhaTYP: predicting the lifestyle for bacteriophages using BERT. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:bbac487. [PMID: 36659812 PMCID: PMC9851330 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbac487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 42.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2022] [Revised: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 10/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Bacteriophages (or phages), which infect bacteria, have two distinct lifestyles: virulent and temperate. Predicting the lifestyle of phages helps decipher their interactions with their bacterial hosts, aiding phages' applications in fields such as phage therapy. Because experimental methods for annotating the lifestyle of phages cannot keep pace with the fast accumulation of sequenced phages, computational method for predicting phages' lifestyles has become an attractive alternative. Despite some promising results, computational lifestyle prediction remains difficult because of the limited known annotations and the sheer amount of sequenced phage contigs assembled from metagenomic data. In particular, most of the existing tools cannot precisely predict phages' lifestyles for short contigs. In this work, we develop PhaTYP (Phage TYPe prediction tool) to improve the accuracy of lifestyle prediction on short contigs. We design two different training tasks, self-supervised and fine-tuning tasks, to overcome lifestyle prediction difficulties. We rigorously tested and compared PhaTYP with four state-of-the-art methods: DeePhage, PHACTS, PhagePred and BACPHLIP. The experimental results show that PhaTYP outperforms all these methods and achieves more stable performance on short contigs. In addition, we demonstrated the utility of PhaTYP for analyzing the phage lifestyle on human neonates' gut data. This application shows that PhaTYP is a useful means for studying phages in metagenomic data and helps extend our understanding of microbial communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiayu Shang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China SAR
| | - Xubo Tang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China SAR
| | - Yanni Sun
- Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China SAR
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27
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Zhang J, He Y, Xia L, Yi J, Wang Z, Zhao Y, Song X, Li J, Liu H, Liang X, Nie S, Liu L. Expansion of Colorectal Cancer Biomarkers Based on Gut Bacteria and Viruses. Cancers (Basel) 2022; 14:cancers14194662. [PMID: 36230584 PMCID: PMC9563090 DOI: 10.3390/cancers14194662] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2022] [Revised: 08/27/2022] [Accepted: 09/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary The current study identified microbial (including bacterial and viral) diagnostic models that could discriminate colorectal tumor patients from healthy controls, expanding the potential biomarkers for colorectal tumors. A combination of five colorectal cancer-associated gut bacteria was identified in this study for the discrimination of colorectal cancer patients from healthy controls, with verifiable performance in multiple cohorts. The gene pathways regulated by aberrant gut bacteria were also identified, providing possible directions for studying bacterial carcinogenesis mechanisms. Furthermore, this study revealed the potential interactions of gut bacteria with viruses and within bacteria in adenoma-carcinoma sequences, which may extend our understanding of dysbiosis in colorectal carcinogenesis. Abstract The alterations in gut bacteria are closely related to colorectal cancer. However, studies on adenoma are still scarce. Besides, the associations of gut viruses with colorectal tumor, and the interactions of bacteria with viruses in colorectal tumors are still under exploration. Therefore, a metagenomic sequencing of stool samples from patients with colorectal adenoma (CRA), colorectal cancer (CRC), and healthy controls was performed to identify changes in gut microbiome in patients with colorectal tumors. Five CRC-enriched bacteria (Peptostreptococcus stomatis, Clostridium symbiosum, Hungatella hathewayi, Parvimonas micra, and Gemella morbillorum) were identified as a diagnostic model to identify CRC patients, and the efficacy of the diagnostic model was verifiable in 1523 metagenomic samples from ten cohorts of eight different countries. We identified the positive association of Bacteroides fragilis with PD-L1 expression and PD-1 checkpoint pathway, providing a possible direction for studying bacterial carcinogenesis mechanisms. Furthermore, the increased interactions within the microbiome in patients may play roles in the development of CRC. In conclusion, this study identified novel microbiota combinations with discrimination for colorectal tumor, and revealed the potential interactions of gut bacteria with viruses in the adenoma-carcinoma sequence, which implies that the microbiome, but not only bacteria, should be paid more attention in further studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia Zhang
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
| | - Yangting He
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
| | - Lu Xia
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
| | - Jing Yi
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
| | - Zhen Wang
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
| | - Yingying Zhao
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
| | - Xuemei Song
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
| | - Jia Li
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
| | - Hongli Liu
- Cancer Center, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430023, China
| | - Xinjun Liang
- Department of Medical Oncology, Tongji Medical College, Hubei Cancer Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430079, China
- Colorectal Cancer Clinical Research Center of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430079, China
- Colorectal Cancer Clinical Research Center of Wuhan, Wuhan 430079, China
| | - Shaofa Nie
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
| | - Li Liu
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +86-27-86393763; Fax: +86-27-83692701
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Versoza CJ, Howell AA, Aftab T, Blanco M, Brar A, Chaffee E, Howell N, Leach W, Lobatos J, Luca M, Maddineni M, Mirji R, Mitra C, Strasser M, Munig S, Patel Z, So M, Sy M, Weiss S, Pfeifer SP. Comparative Genomics of Closely-Related Gordonia Cluster DR Bacteriophages. Viruses 2022; 14:1647. [PMID: 36016269 PMCID: PMC9413003 DOI: 10.3390/v14081647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2022] [Revised: 07/16/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Bacteriophages infecting bacteria of the genus Gordonia have increasingly gained interest in the scientific community for their diverse applications in agriculture, biotechnology, and medicine, ranging from biocontrol agents in wastewater management to the treatment of opportunistic pathogens in pulmonary disease patients. However, due to the time and costs associated with experimental isolation and cultivation, host ranges for many bacteriophages remain poorly characterized, hindering a more efficient usage of bacteriophages in these areas. Here, we perform a series of computational genomic inferences to predict the putative host ranges of all Gordonia cluster DR bacteriophages known to date. Our analyses suggest that BiggityBass (as well as several of its close relatives) is likely able to infect host bacteria from a wide range of genera-from Gordonia to Nocardia to Rhodococcus, making it a suitable candidate for future phage therapy and wastewater treatment strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cyril J. Versoza
- Center for Evolution and Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA;
| | - Abigail A. Howell
- Biodesign Institute, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA;
| | - Tanya Aftab
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Madison Blanco
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Akarshi Brar
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Elaine Chaffee
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Nicholas Howell
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
- School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA;
| | - Willow Leach
- School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA;
| | - Jackelyn Lobatos
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Michael Luca
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA;
| | - Meghna Maddineni
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA;
| | - Ruchira Mirji
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Corinne Mitra
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Maria Strasser
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Saige Munig
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Zeel Patel
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Minerva So
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Makena Sy
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Sarah Weiss
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; (T.A.); (M.B.); (A.B.); (E.C.); (N.H.); (J.L.); (M.L.); (R.M.); (C.M.); (M.S.); (S.M.); (Z.P.); (M.S.); (M.S.); (S.W.)
| | - Susanne P. Pfeifer
- Center for Evolution and Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA;
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