Multi-kingdom microbiota analysis reveals bacteria-viral interplay in IBS with depression and anxiety

作者：Qin Liu, Wenyu Fang, Ping Zheng, Shicai Xie, Xuanting Jiang, Wenhai Luo, Lijuan Han, Ling Zhao, Lin Lü, Lixiang Zhai, Danny J. Yu, Wei Yang, Chengyuan Lin, Xiaodong Fang, Zhaoxiang Bian · 发表于：npj Biofilms and Microbiomes · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1038/s41522-025-00760-4 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Gut microbiota and health、Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens research、Gastrointestinal motility and disorders

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal disorder frequently accompanied by psychological symptoms. Bacterial microbiota plays a critical role in mediating local and systemic immunity, and alterations in these microbial communities have been linked to IBS. Emerging data indicate that other intestinal organisms, including bacteriophages, are closely interlinked with the bacterial microbiota and their host, yet their collective role remains to be elucidated. Here, we analyze the gut multi-kingdom microbiota of 360 IBS patients from a prospective cohort study in Hong Kong, with participants phenotyped through psychological assessment. Our findings reveal significantly lower intra-community correlations in IBS patients compared to healthy controls and highlight unique taxa patterns associated with IBS and mental disorders. Utilizing multi-omic data alongside machine learning techniques, we successfully predicted psychiatric comorbidities in IBS, achieving an average AUC of 0.78. Notably, gut viruses emerged as significant contributors to our predictive model, indicating a vital role for bacteriophages in the gut microbiome of IBS patients. We found that lysogenic phages in IBS displayed a broader host range, with Bilophia containing the most abundant prophages. Our analysis further indicates that IBS patients with depression exhibited a higher prevalence of viral-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes, specifically those involved in the sulfur metabolic pathway rela...