TY - JOUR AU - Garmaeva, Sanzhima AU - Sinha, Trishla AU - Kurilshikov, Alexander AU - Fu, Jingyuan AU - Wijmenga, Cisca AU - Zhernakova, Alexandra PY - 2019 DA - 2019/10/28 TI - Studying the gut virome in the metagenomic era: challenges and perspectives JO - BMC Biology SP - 84 VL - 17 IS - 1 AB - The human gut harbors a complex ecosystem of microorganisms, including bacteria and viruses. With the rise of next-generation sequencing technologies, we have seen a quantum leap in the study of human-gut-inhabiting bacteria, yet the viruses that infect these bacteria, known as bacteriophages, remain underexplored. In this review, we focus on what is known about the role of bacteriophages in human health and the technical challenges involved in studying the gut virome, of which they are a major component. Lastly, we discuss what can be learned from studies of bacteriophages in other ecosystems. SN - 1741-7007 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-019-0704-y DO - 10.1186/s12915-019-0704-y ID - Garmaeva2019 ER -