The group of Yingfei MA and Chenli LIU from CAS Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology have established a catalogue of phages in the human gut and correlated their occurrence with type II diabetes. Instead of a reciprocal relationship of phage specific to its bacterial host, a complex core interaction among bacteria and phages was revealed. Bacteriophages probably play roles in intestinal physiology that are far more important than the alteration of bacterial communities via killing their specific bacterial hosts.
CAS news release, March 6, 2018