The human gut virome, which is often referred to as the “dark matter” of the gut microbiome, remains understudied. A better understanding of the composition and variations of the gut virome across populations is critical for exploring its impact on diseases and health. A series of advances in the characterization of human gut virome have unveiled high genetic diversity and various functional potentials of gut viruses. Here, we summarize the recently available human gut virome databases and discuss their features, procedures, and challenges with the intention to provide a reference to researchers to use while choosing a profiling database. We also propose a “best practice” for cataloging the viral population.

人类肠道病毒组，通常被称为肠道微生物组的“暗物质”，仍未得到充分研究。更好地了解不同人群肠道病毒组的组成和变化对于探索其对疾病和健康的影响至关重要。人类肠道病毒组表征的一系列进展揭示了肠道病毒的高遗传多样性和各种功能潜力。在这里，我们总结了最近可用的人类肠道病毒组数据库，并讨论了它们的特点、程序和挑战，旨在为研究人员在选择分析数据库时提供参考。我们还提出了对病毒种群进行分类的“最佳实践”。