Divergent microbial preludes to necrotising enterocolitis defined by gut phages and bacterial resistomes

Translating microbiome correlations into robust predictive features for complex gut disorders remains elusive, partly due to oversimplified models of pathogenesis and neglect of the virome, a key player in microbial ecosystems. Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), a devastating disease of preterm infants with no reliable clinical predictors, exemplifies this challenge.

To determine the predictive potential of the gut prophageome and polymicrobial aetiologies for NEC.

We applied integrated metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses and machine learning to 1825 longitudinal stool samples from 43 preterm infants who later developed NEC and 86 gestational age-matched and birthweight-matched controls across three US hospitals. We characterised gut prophageome acquisitions and their association with clinical exposures, including antibiotics, diet and pharmacotherapies. To predict NEC risk, we integrated pre-onset prophageome, antibacterial resistome and bacteriome profiles with neonatal pathology, stratifying the cohort by disease onset timing (early: ≤40 days; late: >40 days) for separate analysis.

NEC cases exhibited distinct viral diversity trajectories before disease onset. Early-onset NEC was best predicted by phage-bacterial interaction signatures (75% accuracy, 81% sensitivity). Metatranscriptomics revealed increased phage DNA abundance with low gene expression, suggesting a lysogenic lifestyle that may stabilise pathobionts. These phages encode metabolic genes potentially enhancing pathobiont resilience. Late-onset NEC was best predicted by antibacterial resistome profiles (83% accuracy).

The gut prophageome serves as both a source of pre-symptomatic predictive signals and an active modulator of NEC pathogenesis, with distinct microbial mechanisms driving early-onset and late-onset disease. These polymicrobial etiologies inform strategies for early detection, risk stratification and the development of microbiome-targeted preventive and therapeutic interventions.