Eggerthella lenta evades bacteriophage through reversible megabase-scale inversions of capsular polysaccharide gene clusters

Abstract

Bacteriophages are a promising tool for microbiome editing, yet their development has been constrained by limited insights into bacteriophage-host interactions within their shared mammalian body habitat. We isolated a lytic phage {Phi}KL11 that efficiently targets a disease-associated member of the human gut microbiota, Eggerthella lenta, during in vitro growth. However, {Phi}KL11 selects for a pre-existing and reversible bacteriophage-resistant sub-population in mice. Long-read sequencing revealed a massive genomic inversion event, representing >50% of the E. lenta 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 {Phi}KL11 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.