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News

Evolution On the Inside Track: How Viruses in Gut Bacteria Change Over Time


 

The world is surrounded by microbes that interact with one another competitively or symbiotically, creating a dynamic environment. These interactions occur everywhere, even in our own digestive system. Microbes swarm around the digestive tracts and a myriad of viruses modify key characteristics in bacteria, molding the bacterial population and metabolism. A study led by Fredric D. Bushman, a microbiology professor at University of Pennsylvania, looked at interactions between virus and bacteria in our digestive systems that can ultimately affect humans.

In the study, researchers collected stool samples from a healthy male at various points over 884 days and extracted viral particles, ultimately isolating and analyzing DNA contigs, a contiguous sequence, using ultra-deep genome sequencing. The results showed that approximately 80 percent of viruses remained similar while others fluctuated so greatly that speciation events occurred. The fluctuation occurred remarkably in the microviridae group, bacteriophages with single stranded circular DNA, that incorporate their DNA sequences into bacterial genome as spacers. This result changes overall emphasis on how humans acquire a unique bacterial population. It was previously believed that ingestion of microbes and its accompanying viruses was the key to a diverse microbial diversity, however the evolution of viruses were shown to play a vital role.

The study stresses the importance of rapid evolution in viromes and their ability to create a viral community that is unique to each individual. This important factor can implicate ways the viral and bacterial communities can interact with one another to create differences in how susceptible we are to drugs, along with overall effectiveness.