Antagonistic coevolution (AC) between bacteria and bacteriophages plays a key role in driving and maintaining microbial diversity. Consequently, AC is predicted to affect all levels of biological organisation, from the individual to ecosystem scales. Nonetheless, we know nothing about bacteria–bacteriophage AC in perhaps the most important and clinically relevant microbial ecosystem known to humankind – the human gut microbiome. In this opinion piece I review current research on bacteria–phage AC in in vitro and natural populations of microbes. I then examine the evidence and discuss the potential role of AC in driving observed patterns of intra- and interindividual variation in the gut microbiome together with detailing the potential functional consequences of such AC-driven microbial variation for human health and disease.

细菌和噬菌体之间的拮抗协同进化（AC）在驱动和维持微生物多样性方面起着关键作用。因此，预计交流会影响从个人到生态系统规模的所有生物组织水平。但是，我们对细菌-噬菌体AC一无所知，它可能是人类已知的最重要且与临床相关的微生物生态系统-人类肠道微生物组。在这篇观点中，我回顾了目前在体外对细菌-噬菌体AC的研究和微生物的自然种群。然后，我检查了证据并讨论了AC在驱动肠道微生物组内和个体间差异的观察模式中的潜在作用，并详细介绍了此类AC驱动的微生物变异对人类健康和疾病的潜在功能后果。