It is clear, therefore, that further study is warranted to unravel
the seemingly unique ecology of the human gut microbiome in
this respect. Our identification of the gut bacterial targets for more
than 130 phages, based on evidence for integration into the bacterial
host genome (Fig. 4) or on CRISPR-derived phage–host assignment
(Fig. 3), now opens the window for future, detailed timecourse
studies on the dynamic effect of phages on individual
bacterial species and on the gut microbial consortium as a whole.