Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: GuFi phages represent the most prevalent viral family-level clusters in the human gut microbiome
doi: 10.64898/2026.01.26.701711
Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Schematic of approaches used to identify signatures of actively replicating vOTUs based on read coverage analysis. (B) Distribution of vOTUs with replication signatures in at least 1 sample in VFCs 1-12. (C) Distribution of VFC prevalence versus percentage of samples in which the VFC contains at least one actively replicating vOTU. VFCs with >50% prevalence are numbered (1-12). Reference families replicating in >10% of samples are labelled, with ICTV-ratified families in bold. VFCs 2 and 3 were detected to be actively replicating in the most samples, together with Crassvirales families. The VFCs are color-coded by host phylum. (D) VFC 1-4 prophages induce in vitro . Bacteria were cultured with the addition of mitomycin C, VLP DNA was sequenced, and reads mapped back to the genome assemblies ( Methods ). Prophage regions with mean coverage >2× of the host are highlighted in red and the mean ratios are indicated; other predicted prophages are highlighted in blue. Vertical dotted lines indicate contig boundaries. Ruminococcus torques VFC 1 phage, Ruminococcus gnavus VFC 2 phage, Anaerostipes hadrus VFC 4 phage, and Agathobacter rectalis VFC 4 phage were all detected to be actively replicating. (E) Transmission electron microscopy images of R. torques VFC 1 phage (upper left), R. gnavus VFC 2 phage (upper right), and A. hadrus VFC 4 phage with non-contracted (lower left) and contracted tails (lower right). Scale bars are shown on the lower right of each image. (F) Circos plot of a VFC 2 vOTU with active DGRs. The outer track shows genes (annotations and PHROG categories in Supplementary Fig. 29A), the middle track shows synonymous (blue) and nonsynonymous (red) mutations and pN/pS ratio of genes (darker shades of orange indicate higher pN/pS; Methods ), and the inner track shows coverage skew. The DGR template (green) and variable (red) regions are highlighted spanning the outer and middle tracks.
Article Snippet: By this criterion, Ruminococcus torques Holdeman and Moore (ATCC 22756), Ruminococcus gnavus Moore et al. (ATCC 29149), Anaerostipes hadrus (ATCC 29173), and Agathobacter rectalis (Hauduroy et al.) Prevot (ATCC 33656) carry VFC 1, 2, 4, and 4 prophages, respectively.
Techniques: In Vitro, Bacteria, Cell Culture, Transmission Assay, Electron Microscopy