Metagenomic analyses of an uncultured viral community from human feces

Abstract

Here we present the first metagenomic analyses of an uncultured viral community from human feces, using partial shotgun sequencing. Most of the sequences were unrelated to anything previously reported. The recognizable viruses were mostly siphophages, and the community contained an estimated 1,200 viral genotypes.

FIG. 1.

SYBR Gold-stained human fecal viral concentrate under epifluorescent microscopy. No contaminating microbial cells were observed.

FIG. 2.

Genomic overview of the uncultured viral community from human feces based on TBLASTX sequence similarities. (A) Numbers of sequences with significant matches (E values of <0.001) in GenBank. (B) Distribution of significant matches among major classes of biological entities. (C) Types of mobile elements recognized in the library. (D) Families of phages identified in the fecal library.

FIG. 3.

Pulsed-field gel displaying the major genome size classes of viruses in the human fecal sample. The three sample lanes (on the right) represent increasing amounts of sample DNA. The DNA ladder is shown in the leftmost lane. The limited amount of DNA made it necessary to enhance the sample bands relative to the ladder by using Corel PHOTO-PAINT. The reported bands were visible by eye on the original gel.