<i>Eggerthella lenta</i> evades bacteriophage through reversible megabase-scale inversions of capsular polysaccharide gene clusters
genome, enriched in response to bacteriophage infection. Transcriptomics linked this inversion to the altered expression of three capsular polysaccharide synthesis (CPS) gene clusters and transmission electron microscopy confirmed differential capsule production. Finally, we show that ΦKL11 has a broad host range attributable to CPS and other strain-variable genes. These findings suggest a previously unrecognized strategy for phage evasion in the gut, involving megabase-scale genomic inversions and reversible capsule variation driving phage resistance.
Authors
- Andrey N. Shkoporov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5547-8672)
- Kathy N. Lam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1543-0161)
- Kai Trepka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8672-6317)
- Colin Buttimer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3361-8902)
- Aidan Coffey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4116-9913)
- Gina Partipilo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6353-3419)
- Paola Soto-Perez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8352-3429)
- Cecilia Noecker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1417-2383)
- Edwin Ortega
- Francesca Bottacini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0142-2956)
- Peter J. Turnbaugh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0888-2875)
- Paolo Canigiula
- Shenwei Zhang
- Lorenzo Ramirez
- Trey Lawrence
- Lorraine Draper
- Colin Hill
- Luis Raminrez Hernandez
- R. Paul Ross
- Jenny Lee
Institutions
- Minnesota State University, Mankato (US)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco (US)
- Munster Technological University (IE)
- APC Microbiome Institute (IE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Published
- 2026-04-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.24.720693
- Primary Topic
- Bacteriophages and microbial interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Institutes of Health