Gut as viral reservoir: lessons from gut viromes, HIV and COVID-19

The gut microbiota is composed of bacteria, fungi and viruses.1–3 While the presence and composition of the bacteriome have been extensively studied in recent years, the ‘dark matter’ of microbiomes including viruses (viral microbiome or virome) remains incompletely understood.4 Analysis of microbiotic communities in the gut showed that bacteria rapidly colonise the gut after birth, followed by the appearance of prophages by 1 month which are...