4 research outputs found
Novel phages of healthy skin metaviromes from South Africa
Recent skin metagenomic studies have investigated the harbored viral diversity and its possible
influence on healthy skin microbial populations, and tried to establish global patterns of skin-phage
evolution. However, the detail associated with the phages that potentially play a role in skin health
has not been investigated. While skin metagenome and -metavirome studies have indicated that the
skin virome is highly site specific and shows marked interpersonal variation, they have not assessed
the presence/absence of individual phages. Here, we took a semi-culture independent approach
(metaviromic) to better understand the composition of phage communities on skin from South African
study participants. Our data set adds over 130 new phage species of the skin to existing databases.
We demonstrated that identical phages were present on different individuals and in different body
sites, and we conducted a detailed analysis of the structural organization of these phages. We further
found that a bacteriophage related to the Staphylococcus capitis phage Stb20 may be a common skin
commensal virus potentially regulating its host and its activities on the ski