ArticleFEMS microbiology letters2016
Natural mummification of the human gut preserves bacteriophage DNA.
Article in FEMS microbiology letters, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- DNA virus-host patterns in lake and marine environments over the last glacial cycle.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Cost-effectiveness and other considerations for different research techniques applied in ancient DNA analysis.Anatomy & cell biology · 2025Review
- Ultraconserved bacteriophage genome sequence identified in 1300-year-old human palaeofaeces.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Topsoil and subsoil bacterial community assemblies across different drainage conditions in a mountain environment.Biological research · 2023Article
- Historic and Prehistoric Epidemics: An Overview of Sources Available for the Study of Ancient Pathogens.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Review
- Roles for non-human primate-associated phage diversity in improving medicine and public health.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2022Article
- Interactions between bacterial and phage communities in natural environments.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2022Review
- Unraveling the viral dark matter through viral metagenomics.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- Identification of ancient viruses from metagenomic data of the Jomon people.Journal of human genetics · 2021Article
- Gut Microbiota and Colon Cancer: A Role for Bacterial Protein Toxins?International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Structures of Three Actinobacteriophage Capsids: Roles of Symmetry and Accessory Proteins.Viruses · 2020Article
- Article
- Unprecedented Diversity of ssDNA Phages from the FamilyViruses · 2018Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The natural mummification process of the human gut represents a unique opportunity to study the resulting microbial community structure and composition. While results are providing insights into the preservation of bacteria, fungi, pathogenic eukaryotes and eukaryotic viruses, no studies have demonstrated that the process of natural mummification also results in the preservation of bacteriophage DNA. We characterized the gut microbiome of three pre-Columbian Andean mummies, namely FI3, FI9 and FI12, and found sequences homologous to viruses. From the sequences attributable to viruses, 50.4% (mummy FI3), 1.0% (mummy FI9) and 84.4% (mummy FI12) were homologous to bacteriophages. Sequences corresponding to the Siphoviridae, Myoviridae, Podoviridae and Microviridae families were identified. Predicted putative bacterial hosts corresponded mainly to the Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, and included Bacillus, Staphylococcus, Clostridium, Escherichia, Vibrio, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas and Yersinia. Predicted functional categories associated with bacteriophages showed a representation of structural, replication, integration and entry and lysis genes. The present study suggests that the natural mummification of the human gut results in the preservation of bacteriophage DNA, representing an opportunity to elucidate the ancient phageome and to hypothesize possible mechanisms of preservation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.