Abstract
Prophage activation in intestinal environments has been frequently reported to affect host adaptability, pathogen virulence, gut bacterial community composition, and intestinal health. Prophage activation is mostly caused by various stimulators, such as diet, antibiotics, some bacterial metabolites, gastrointestinal transit, inflammatory environment, oxidative stress, and quorum sensing. Moreover, with advancements in biotechnology and the deepening cognition of prophages, prophage activation regulation therapy is currently applied to the treatment of some bacterial intestinal diseases such as Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli infection. This review aims to make headway on prophage induction in the intestine, in order to make a better understanding of dynamic changes of prophages, effects of prophage activation on physiological characteristics of bacteria and intestinal health, and subsequently provide guidance on prophage activation regulation therapy.
Highlights
Bacteriophages represent the majority of intestinal microorganisms, which have been intimately associated with gut health, since they play crucial roles in maintaining intestinal homeostasis, bacterial concentrations, and microbiota diversity, etc. (Hatfull and Hendrix, 2011; Vitetta et al, 2018; Gogokhia et al, 2019)
Viral DNA that originates from temperate phages, have been identified in the genome of approximately 40–50% of microbe (Howard-Varona et al, 2017)
Most prophage sequences are integrated into bacterial chromosome, accounting for as much as 20% of host genome (Khan and Wahl, 2019)
Summary
Bacteriophages represent the majority of intestinal microorganisms, which have been intimately associated with gut health, since they play crucial roles in maintaining intestinal homeostasis, bacterial concentrations, and microbiota diversity, etc. (Hatfull and Hendrix, 2011; Vitetta et al, 2018; Gogokhia et al, 2019). Temperate phages are defined by their life characteristics to switch between the lysogenic and lytic life states, and affect fitness benefits of the hosts and the function of the entire gut ecosystem (Jover et al, 2013; Obeng et al, 2016; Cornuault et al, 2018). Escherichia coli phage P1 and lambda-related phage N15 exists extrachromosomally as a plasmid in a circular form and with hairpin telomeres in a linear form, respectively (Łobocka et al, 2004; Ravin, 2015). Prophages and their hosts coexist and coevolve in intestinal environments (Cornuault et al, 2020)
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