ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Virus and Host
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1629120
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Respiratory System Microbiome: Diversity, Function and HealthView all 7 articles
Genetic Diversity of Microviridae Phages in the Human Respiratory Tract
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
- 2Department of Laboratory Medicine, Jintan Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University, Changzhou, China
- 3Department of Breast Surgery, Affiliated People’s Hospital, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
- 4Institute of Critical Care Medicine, The Affiliated People's Hospital, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
- 5Department of Dermatology, The Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University,, Zhenjiang, China
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Recent studies have revealed that Microviridae, a family of ssDNA viruses, are widely distributed in natural environments and play significant roles in various ecosystems. While Microviridae members dominate the human gut microbiome, their genetic diversity in the human respiratory ecosystem remains unclear. The distribution, genetic characteristics, and ecological roles of Microviridae are still poorly understood. This study identified 327 Microviridae-associated contigs from nasopharyngeal swab samples of healthy individuals through metagenomic sequencing and comparative genomics analysis, including 15 near-complete Microviridae-related genomes. These genomes exhibited high sequence divergence from each other, revealing their high genetic diversity. Phylogenetic analysis based on VP1 (major capsid protein; F protein) demonstrated that the 15 genomes could be classified into seven distinct Microviridae groups. This work significantly expands the understanding of the diversity, genomic architecture, and evolutionary dynamics of Microviridae within the human respiratory tract.
Keywords: Microviridae, Genome, major capsid protein, phylogenetic analysis, diversity, Potential host bacteria
Received: 15 May 2025; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Zhang, Yin, Chen, Chen, Yang, Liu and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hongfeng Yang, Institute of Critical Care Medicine, The Affiliated People's Hospital, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
Qi Liu, Department of Dermatology, The Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University,, Zhenjiang, China
Wen Zhang, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
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