Characterising the gut virome by cross comparison of sequence platforms and isolating bacteroides bacteriophages from sewage water

The human gut microbiota includes viruses, termed the ‘virome’. Outnumbering the bacterial abundance on average 10 : 1. Recent studies suggested that changes in intestinal virome may lead to chronic gastrointestinal (GI) inflammation and bacterial dysbiosis. Thereby causing diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), type I diabetes (T1D) and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Conversely, bacterial dysbiosis caused by increases in aerobic bacteria and decreases in anaerobic Bacteroides spp. have been described in some inflammatory mediated diseases and in considering that Bacteroides spp. are prominent members of the normal gut flora, their associated bacteriophages merit investigation. In this study we characterise Bacteroides related bacteriophages and their genomes isolated from sewage waste water environment. As part of this study we have made direct comparisons of Illumina HiSeq PCR-free and Oxford nanopore MinION PCR-free sequencing for viral metagenomics in addition to determining the extent of PCR related biases sequence generated viromes.