Human-Gut-DNA Virome Variations across Geography, Ethnicity, and Urbanization

• Published in: Cell host & microbe Vol. 28; no. 5; pp. 741 - 751.e4
• Main Authors: Zuo, Tao, Sun, Yang, Wan, Yating, Yeoh, Yun Kit, Zhang, Fen, Cheung, Chun Pan, Chen, Nan, Luo, Juan, Wang, Wen, Sung, Joseph J.Y., Chan, Paul K.S., Wang, Kunhua, Chan, Francis K.L., Miao, Yinglei, Ng, Siew C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 11.11.2020
• Subjects: cholesterol; diet; ethnicity; geography; metacommunity; metadata; region; urbanization; virome; virome; metadata; ethnicity; geography; cholesterol; diet; region; urbanization; metacommunity
• ISSN: 1931-3128; 1934-6069
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.08.005

The human-gut-DNA virome is highly diverse and individual specific, but little is known of its variation at a population level. Here, we report the fecal DNA virome of 930 healthy adult subjects from two regions in China (Hong Kong and Yunnan) spanning six ethnicities (Han, Zang, Miao, Bai, Dai, and Hani), and including urban and rural residents for each ethnicity. Twenty host factors were found to significantly correlate with the human-gut virome variation, with geography carrying the strongest impact and ethnicity-distinct diets associating with certain viral species. Urbanization enhances interindividual dissimilarities between gut viromes, with the duration of urban residence associating with multiple bacteriophages, including Lactobacillus phage and Lactococcus phage. Overall, the gut virome presents more heterogeneity relative to the bacterial microbiome across the examined Chinese populations. This study highlights population-based variations and the importance of host and environmental factors in shaping the DNA virome in the human gut. [Display omitted] •Geography has the strongest impact of the examined factors on the human-gut virome variation•Ethnicity-distinct diets associate with gut viral species composition•Urbanization enhances interindividual dissimilarities between gut viromes•The gut virome presents more heterogeneity relative to the bacterial microbiome In this study, Zuo et al. metagenomically analyze the human-gut DNA virome across two regions and six ethnicities in China, demonstrating substantial virome variation across healthy individuals. Host factors significantly contribute to this variation with the greatest effects (ranked in order) attributed to geography, diet, medication, urbanization, and ethnicity.