Long-term persistence of crAss-like phage crAss001 in Bacteroides intestinalis cultures in vitro and in vivo

The crAss-like phages are ubiquitous and highly abundant members of the human gut virome that infect commensal bacteria of the order Bacteroidales. Although incapable of classical lysogeny, these viruses demonstrate long-term persistence in the human gut microbiome, dominating the virome in some individuals. Here we employ a combination of genomic and transcriptomic approaches to investigate persistence mechanisms of phage crAss001 in cultures of its host Bacteroides intestinalis both in vitro and in vivo.