Metagenomics was used to analyze the phage community structure in the water and sediment of Huangshui River, Weihe River and Luohe River, and the diversity, host and functional potential of the three tributaries of the Yellow River were compared. The results showed that 99.77% of the unknown vOTUs (viral Operational Taxonomic Units) identified from the metagenome could not be clustered with the NCBI Refseq database, indicating a high degree of species novelty in the phage community. A total of 158 genera belonging to 15 families were detected in three tributaries. The endemic phage genera were the most in Huangshui River and Pbi1virus, Badnavirus, Ea214virus and Gammabaculovirus were detected only in this tributary. The phage community structure of the three tributaries was significantly different and the spatial heterogeneity was greater in the sediment samples. Diversified auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) indicated that phages might be involved in the cycling of nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus in Huangshui River, Weihe River and Luohe River, but there was no difference in the distribution of AMGs in the three tributaries. The host range of phage community spanned 18 prokaryotic phyla, mainly including Proteobacteria, Actinobacteriota and Bacteroidota. About 1.8% of the phages might infect hosts across phyla. Phages infecting Planctomycetota were enriched in water and sediments of Luohe River, while Chloroflexota-infected phages were relatively abundant in the sediments of Weihe River. There was a significant correlation between the bacterial and phage community and the consistency was higher in water samples.

利用宏基因组学技术, 分析黄河典型入干支流湟水河、渭河和洛河水体及沉积物中噬菌体的群落结构, 并对三条支流的噬菌体多样性、宿主和功能潜能进行比较。结果显示, 从宏基因组中识别出的99.77%的未知vOTUs无法与NCBI Refseq参考数据库聚类, 表明噬菌体群落的物种新颖度较高。检出的噬菌体隶属15科158属, 湟水河中特有的噬菌体属最多, Pbi1virus, Badnavirus, Ea214virus和Gammabaculovirus仅在该支流中检出。3条支流的噬菌体群落结构具有显著差异, 且沉积物中群落的空间异质性更大。多种辅助代谢基因(AMGs)表明噬菌体可能参与了湟水河、渭河及洛河采样区域的氮、碳和磷等元素的循环过程, 但3条支流中的AMGs分布无差异。噬菌体群落的宿主范围跨越18个原核生物门, 以变形菌门、放线菌门和拟杆菌门为主, 1.8%的噬菌体具有跨门感染的潜在能力。洛河的水体及沉积物中富集了感染Planctomycetota的噬菌体, 渭河沉积物样本中感染Chloroflexota的噬菌体含量较高。细菌群落和噬菌体群落存在显著的相关性, 且水体中噬菌体与其宿主的一致性比沉积物更高。