There is significant interest in altering the course of cardiometabolic disease development via gut microbiomes. Nevertheless, the highly abundant phage members of the complex gut ecosystem -which impact gut bacteria- remain understudied. Here, we show gut virome changes associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS), a highly prevalent clinical condition preceding cardiometabolic disease, in 196 participants by combined sequencing of bulk whole genome and virus like particle communities. MetS gut viromes exhibit decreased richness and diversity. They are enriched in phages infecting Streptococcaceae and Bacteroidaceae and depleted in those infecting Bifidobacteriaceae. Differential abundance analysis identifies eighteen viral clusters (VCs) as significantly associated with either MetS or healthy viromes. Among these are a MetS-associated Roseburia VC that is related to healthy control-associated Faecalibacterium and Oscillibacter VCs. Further analysis of these VCs revealed the Candidatus Heliusviridae, a highly widespread gut phage lineage found in 90+% of participants. The identification of the temperate Ca. Heliusviridae provides a starting point to studies of phage effects on gut bacteria and the role that this plays in MetS.

人们对通过肠道微生物组改变心脏代谢疾病的发展过程非常感兴趣。然而，复杂肠道生态系统中高度丰富的噬菌体成员——影响肠道细菌——仍未得到充分研究。在这里，我们通过对大量全基因组和病毒样颗粒群落的联合测序，在 196 名参与者中展示了与代谢综合征 (MetS) 相关的肠道病毒组变化，代谢综合征是一种先于心脏代谢疾病的非常普遍的临床病症。MetS 肠道病毒组表现出丰富度和多样性下降。它们富含感染链球菌科和类杆菌科的噬菌体，而缺乏感染双歧杆菌科的噬菌体. 差异丰度分析确定了 18 个与 MetS 或健康病毒组显着相关的病毒簇 (VC)。其中包括与健康对照相关的Faecalibacterium和Oscillibacter VC 相关的 MetS 相关Roseburia VC。对这些 VC 的进一步分析揭示了Candidatus Heliusviridae，这是一种在 90% 以上的参与者中发现的高度广泛的肠道噬菌体谱系。温带钙的鉴定。Heliusviridae为研究噬菌体对肠道细菌的影响及其在 MetS 中的作用提供了一个起点。