Abstract
The virome is comprised of endogenous retroviruses, eukaryotic viruses, and bacteriophages and is increasingly being recognized as an essential part of the human microbiome. The human virome is associated with Type-1 diabetes (T1D), Type-2 diabetes (T2D), Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, and cancer. Increasing evidence also supports trans-kingdom interactions of viruses with bacteria, small eukaryotes and host in disease progression. The present review focuses on virus ecology and biology and how this translates mostly to human gut virome research. Current challenges in the field and how the development of bioinformatic tools and controls are aiding to overcome some of these challenges are also discussed. Finally, the present review also focuses on how human gut virome research could result in translational and clinical studies that may facilitate the development of therapeutic approaches.
Highlights
What is the Microbiome?The human microbiome is comprised of communities of commensal, symbiotic and pathogenic bacteria, viruses, archaea, and small eukaryotes that actively interact with each other and the host to maintain homeostasis [1]
The virome is comprised of endogenous retroviruses, eukaryotic viruses, and bacteriophages and is increasingly being recognized as an essential part of the human microbiome
We mainly focus on the role of the gut virome in health, its newly identified potential role(s) in various diseases, some of the challenges encountered in virome characterization, and how consideration of the virome is enabling translational and clinical discoveries
Summary
The human microbiome is comprised of communities of commensal, symbiotic and pathogenic bacteria, viruses, archaea, and small eukaryotes that actively interact with each other and the host to maintain homeostasis [1]. By using shotgun metagenomic sequencing, microbial community membership can be studied through the sequencing of all genes, rather than the 16S or 18S rRNA genes alone This approach possesses the advantage of understanding gene function in association with health, disease, and other types of dysbiosis [18]. While viruses are the most numerous (about 1031 viral particles on Earth and approximately 108 to 109 per gram of feces) and diverse microbial entities, relatively few studies have focused on the membership and function of viruses as part of the human microbiome [19] This is probably due to the challenges encountered in viral isolation, nucleic acid extraction, sequencing and analysis pipelines [20]. While research is shedding light into the role of viruses and the virome in diseases associated with the mentioned body sites and sample types, we will not be discussing them in the present review
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