CrAssphage

crAss-like phage (crassvirus)
3D structure of the ΦcrAss001 virus particle. a, Molecular surface of the viral particle (virion), viewed from the outside. b, Cross-section through the virion. Proteins making up the capsid (protein shell) are shown in yellow and blue; cargo proteins are in purple; pink and pale-blue proteins on the capsid are head-fibre proteins; proteins making up the tail barrel are shown in different colours; and tail-fibre proteins are shown in grey. Credit: Bayfield, O. W. et al./Nature (CC BY 4.0).
Virus classification Edit this classification
(unranked): Virus
Realm: Duplodnaviria
Kingdom: Heunggongvirae
Phylum: Uroviricota
Class: Caudoviricetes
Order: Crassvirales
Families

CrAss-like phage (crassviruses) are a bacteriophage family representing the most abundant viruses in the human gut, discovered in 2014 by cross assembling reads in human fecal metagenomes.[1] In silico comparative genomics and taxonomic analysis have found that crAss-like phages represent a highly abundant and diverse family of viruses.[2][3] CrAss-like phage were predicted to infect bacteria of the Bacteroidota phylum and the prediction was later confirmed when the first crAss-like phage (crAss001) was isolated on a Bacteroidota host (Bacteroides intestinalis) in 2018.[4] Crassviruses are podoviruses, possessing short non-contractile tails and icosahedral capsids. The first 3D structure of a crassvirus was determined by cryo-EM in 2023.[5][6] While the presence of crAss-like phage in the human gut is not yet associated with any specific health condition, they are generally associated with a healthy gut microbiome and likely impact significantly on the gut Bacteroidota.[3][2][7][8]

  1. ^ Dutilh BE, Cassman N, McNair K, Sanchez SE, Silva GG, Boling L, et al. (July 2014). "A highly abundant bacteriophage discovered in the unknown sequences of human faecal metagenomes". Nature Communications. 5: 4498. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.4498D. doi:10.1038/ncomms5498. PMC 4111155. PMID 25058116.
  2. ^ a b Guerin E, Shkoporov A, Stockdale SR, Clooney AG, Ryan FJ, Sutton TD, et al. (November 2018). "Biology and Taxonomy of crAss-like Bacteriophages, the Most Abundant Virus in the Human Gut". Cell Host & Microbe. 24 (5): 653–664.e6. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2018.10.002. hdl:11019/3445. PMID 30449316. S2CID 53950837.
  3. ^ a b Liang YY, Zhang W, Tong YG, Chen SP (December 2016). "crAssphage is not associated with diarrhoea and has high genetic diversity". Epidemiology and Infection. 144 (16): 3549–3553. doi:10.1017/S095026881600176X. PMC 9150186. PMID 30489235.
  4. ^ Shkoporov AN, Khokhlova EV, Fitzgerald CB, Stockdale SR, Draper LA, Ross RP, Hill C (November 2018). "ΦCrAss001 represents the most abundant bacteriophage family in the human gut and infects Bacteroides intestinalis". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 4781. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.4781S. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07225-7. PMC 6235969. PMID 30429469.
  5. ^ Bayfield, Oliver W.; Shkoporov, Andrey N.; Yutin, Natalya; Khokhlova, Ekaterina V.; Smith, Jake L. R.; Hawkins, Dorothy E. D. P.; Koonin, Eugene V.; Hill, Colin; Antson, Alfred A. "Structural atlas of a human gut crassvirus". Nature. 617 (7960): 409–416. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06019-2. ISSN 1476-4687.
  6. ^ "Structure of the most abundant human gut virus". Nature (Briefing). 2023-05-03. doi:10.1038/d41586-023-01336-y.
  7. ^ Honap, Tanvi P.; Sankaranarayanan, Krithivasan; Schnorr, Stephanie L.; Ozga, Andrew T.; Warinner, Christina; Lewis, Cecil M. (2020-01-15). "Biogeographic study of human gut-associated crAssphage suggests impacts from industrialization and recent expansion". PLOS ONE. 15 (1): e0226930. Bibcode:2020PLoSO..1526930H. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0226930. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 6961876. PMID 31940321.
  8. ^ Edwards, Robert A.; Vega, Alejandro A.; Norman, Holly M.; Ohaeri, Maria; Levi, Kyle; Dinsdale, Elizabeth A.; Cinek, Ondrej; Aziz, Ramy K.; McNair, Katelyn; Barr, Jeremy J.; Bibby, Kyle; Brouns, Stan J. J.; Cazares, Adrian; de Jonge, Patrick A.; Desnues, Christelle (October 2019). "Global phylogeography and ancient evolution of the widespread human gut virus crAssphage". Nature Microbiology. 4 (10): 1727–1736. doi:10.1038/s41564-019-0494-6. ISSN 2058-5276. PMC 7440971. PMID 31285584.