title: Computational approaches to predict bacteriophage-host relationships.
abstract: Metagenomics has changed the face of virus discovery by enabling the accurate identification of viral genome sequences without requiring isolation of the viruses. As a result, metagenomic virus discovery leaves the first and most fundamental question about any novel virus unanswered: What host does the virus infect? The diversity of the global virosphere and the volumes of data obtained in metagenomic sequencing projects demand computational tools for virus-host prediction. We focus on bacteriophages (phages, viruses that infect bacteria), the most abundant and diverse group of viruses found in environmental metagenomes. By analyzing 820 phages with annotated hosts, we review and assess the predictive power of in silico phage-host signals. Sequence homology approaches are the most effective at identifying known phage-host pairs. Compositional and abundance-based methods contain significant signal for phage-host classification, providing opportunities for analyzing the unknowns in viral metagenomes. Together, these computational approaches further our knowledge of the interactions between phages and their hosts. Importantly, we find that all reviewed signals significantly link phages to their hosts, illustrating how current knowledge and insights about the interaction mechanisms and ecology of coevolving phages and bacteria can be exploited to predict phage-host relationships, with potential relevance for medical and industrial applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Dr., San Diego, CA 92182, USA Department of Marine Biology, Institute of Biology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, CEP 21941-902, Brazil Division of Mathematics and Computer Science, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Ave, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Dr., San Diego, CA 92182, USA.
authors.forename: Katelyn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McNair
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Rega Institute KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, VIB, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Laboratory of Microbiology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Karoline
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Faust
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Rega Institute KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, VIB, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Laboratory of Microbiology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Raes
authors.affiliation: Department of Marine Biology, Institute of Biology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, CEP 21941-902, Brazil Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH, Utrecht, the Netherlands Centre for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Radboud University Medical Centre, Geert Grooteplein 28, 6525 GA, Nijmegen, the Netherlands bedutilh@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Bas E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Dutilh
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000821:virology*; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000235:genetics*; D056186:Metagenomics
keywords: CRISPR; co-occurrence; metagenomics; oligonucleotide usage; phages; viruses of microbes