Phage communities and antibiotic resistance genes in food viromes

In this study, twenty-one food samples previously reported to carry ARGs were processed to purify the viral particles in the sample. Once DNA outside the particles was removed, viral capsids were opened and the DNA packaged was sequenced. Krona analysis revealed a large percentage of unclassified sequences (from 27 to 97%) in all the viromes, and only 0.07-5.3 % of the contigs were identified as viral sequences; of these, more than 91% belonged to different bacteriophage families. Bacterial genes, including 16SrDNA, were abundant in the viromes, and they were attributed to phage packaging, given that bacterial DNA was absent outside the viral capsids. The detection of 16SrDNA allowed us to identify the bacterial hosts of phages from the different viromes and three major functional groups of genes related to metabolism, biosynthesis, and detoxification/resistance. Some antibiotic resistances were detected viromes and study of the flanking sequences of ARGs indicated chromosomal bacterial DNA and also transposon sequences located inserted in phage DNA.