Characteristics of Phages and Their Interactions With Hosts in Anaerobic Reactors

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic wastes relies on the interaction and cooperation of various microorganisms. Phages are crucial components of the microbial community in AD systems, but their diversity and interactions with the prokaryotic populations are still inadequately comprehended. In this study, 2121 viral operational taxonomic units (vOTUs) were recovered from 12 anaerobic fatty acid–fed reactors. Notably, 63.1% of these vOTUs could not be assigned to any known family, revealing a substantial presence of uncharted phages specifically associated with AD environments. Over half of the vOTUs associated with hosts had the capability to infect multiple hosts, ranging from 2 to 49, with a prevalent tendency to infect 2–5 hosts. In silico predictions of phage-host linkages uncovered that only a small fraction of vOTUs were shared across different functional groups, including fermentative bacteria, syntrophic fatty acid–oxidising bacteria (SFOB) and methanogens. Phages linked to hosts in all three groups primarily consisted of generalists and temperate species, especially those linked to SFOB. Additionally, metabolic reconstruction identified auxiliary metabolic genes participating in fatty acid degradation, methanogenesis and energy conservation. The present study provides insights into phage characteristics and their in situ interactions with prokaryotic hosts, highlighting their ecological role in AD systems.