The colonic virome in inflammatory bowel disease
The human gut virome is a key component of our microbiome and has many potential interactions with our health and disease. Our understanding of these viruses, primarily composed of bacteriophages, have rapidly advanced in recent years due to a rise of new bioinformatic tools, viral databases, and novel datasets, yet our insight into the gut virome is predominantly derived from fecal sampling. The colonic mucosa represents a distinct ecologic niche that allows for higher-resolution study of how our gut virome may influence intestinal pathologies. Here, we present a study of the colonic mucosal-luminal interface virome in a cohort of treatment-naive children undergoing investigation for inflammatory bowel disease.