Phages are everywhere. We know this very well. But where is everywhere? Can we locate particular phages in certain ecosystems? Is there a pattern there?

This new PhAnToMe Labs tool may help us answer this question, or at least get the right questions:

1) Are cyanophages enriched in certain marine metagenomes?

2) Are enteric bacteriophages enriched in mammalian fecal samples?

3) Can we locate a certain phage entirely in one metagenome (remember the classical riddle: can one locate the same virus twice somewhere?)

Here are some examples:

1. Cyanophage in an Indian Ocean sample:

This image plots the GS117b Shotgun – Coastal sample – Indian Ocean – St. Anne Island, Seychelles – Seychelles metagenome compared to the Cyanophage P-SSM2 phage genome

2. Phage lambda and human feces sample:

This image plots the human In-M metagenome compared to the Bacteriophage lambda phage genome