Fig. 5

The effect of Streptomyces-enriched phages on ARG and MGE abundances, bacterial community composition, and functioning across 48 agricultural soil samples collected in China. a Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images of typical phages in Streptomyces enriched-phage suspensions. b Changes in the ARG, MGE, and Streptomyces abundances between phage and control groups averaged over 48 soil samples. c PCoA analysis shows the effect of sampling sites and phage treatment on the ARG and MGE composition based on distance dissimilarity. d Changes in the bacterial community richness (right) and community composition (left) between phage and control groups averaged over 48 soil samples. e The correlation between total ARG and Streptomyces taxa abundances is based on 48 soil samples across China (dots showing means of three replicates per site). f The effect of phages on the abundance (left) and transcriptional (right) activity of Streptomyces-specific phages at the end of the experiment. In panels c and e, shaded clouds represent 95% confidence intervals around the centroids. The asterisks indicate significant differences between phage and control groups based on the Student’s t-test (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001)