Antibiotic treatment expands the resistance reservoir and ecological network of the phage metagenome.

ABSTRACT: The mammalian gut ecosystem has considerable influence on host physiology, but the mechanisms that sustain this complex environment in the face of different stresses remain obscure. Perturbations to the gut ecosystem, such as through antibiotic treatment or diet, are at present interpreted at the level of bacterial phylogeny. Less is known about the contributions of the abundant population of phages to this ecological network. Here we explore the phageome as a potential genetic reservoir for bacterial adaptation by sequencing murine faecal phage populations following antibiotic perturbation. We show that antibiotic treatment leads to the enrichment of phage-encoded genes that confer resistance via disparate mechanisms to the administered drug, as well as genes that confer resistance to ant

SUBMITTER: Modi SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3710538 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature