{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,26]],"date-time":"2026-05-26T10:04:35Z","timestamp":1779789875710,"version":"3.53.1"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,21]]},"group-title":"Microbiology","reference-count":47,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,21]],"date-time":"2026-05-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1779321600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.biorxiv.org\/about\/FAQ#license"}],"funder":[{"name":"Independent Research Fund Denmark","award":["1054-00099B"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1054-00099B"]}]},{"name":"EMBO","award":["11375"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["11375"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,21]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  Bacteriophages traversing the gastrointestinal tract are exposed to extreme physicochemical stresses that may rapidly compromise virion integrity and shape infection dynamics. While some phages bind to host-derived mucins at mucosal surfaces, the functional consequences of soluble mucin glycans for phage-host interactions remain incompletely understood. Here, we show that soluble mucin glycans exert dual effects on the\n                  <jats:italic>Escherichia coli<\/jats:italic>\n                  phage T4 by delaying infection initiation while simultaneously providing environmental virion stability. Mucin-coated T4 exhibits a lag in the onset of productive infection, consistent with transient steric occlusion from\n                  <jats:italic>E. coli<\/jats:italic>\n                  , yet without impairing overall phage progeny production once infection was established. We further show that\n                  <jats:italic>E. coli<\/jats:italic>\n                  can metabolize purified mucin, supporting a model in which dynamic remodeling of the mucin matrix gradually releases T4 and enables infection. Importantly, mucin coating substantially increases T4 survival under gastrointestinal-like stresses, including acidic pH and protease exposure. Moreover, we find that in a murine gut colonization model, a single oral dose of mucin-coated T4 displayed enhanced fecal persistence over a two-week period, which correlated with prolonged suppression of\n                  <jats:italic>E. coli<\/jats:italic>\n                  populations and delayed resolution of phage-associated functional shifts in the gut microbiome. Together, we find that that soluble mucin glycans actively shape T4 phage infection kinetics, virion stability, and ecological impact in the murine gut, and support mucin-based formulations as a strategy to extend the persistence and efficacy of orally delivered phages.\n                <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.05.21.726763","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,22]],"date-time":"2026-05-22T06:00:21Z","timestamp":1779429621000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Slow to Start, Free at Last: Dual Effects of Mucin on\n                  <i>Escherichia coli<\/i>\n                  Phage T4"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7025-8558","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kira C\u00e9line","family":"Koonce","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Copenhagen, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Frederiksberg, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anna","family":"Rasmussen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Copenhagen, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Frederiksberg, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4424-9807","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Raquel Bastos","family":"Gon\u00e7alo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine, Oeiras, Portugal"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9587-9171","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mathias","family":"Middelboe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Copenhagen, Department of Biology, Helsing\u00f8r, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5210-1434","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Karina B.","family":"Xavier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine, Oeiras, Portugal"},{"name":"Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3711-914X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jesper Juel","family":"Mauritzen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Copenhagen, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Frederiksberg, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5904-8859","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nina Molin","family":"H\u00f8yland-Kroghsbo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Copenhagen, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Frederiksberg, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"issue":"13-s","key":"2026052602300830000_2026.05.21.726763v1.1","first-page":"e2020024","article-title":"Bacteriophages presence in nature and their role in the natural selection of bacterial populations","volume":"91","year":"2020","journal-title":"Acta Biomed"},{"key":"2026052602300830000_2026.05.21.726763v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1394","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2018.01394","article-title":"Beyond Bacteria: Bacteriophage-Eukaryotic Host Interactions Reveal Emerging Paradigms of Health and Disease","volume":"9","year":"2018","journal-title":"Front Microbiol"},{"key":"2026052602300830000_2026.05.21.726763v1.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nrmicro3564"},{"key":"2026052602300830000_2026.05.21.726763v1.4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/mbo3.384"},{"key":"2026052602300830000_2026.05.21.726763v1.5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41579-023-00934-x"},{"key":"2026052602300830000_2026.05.21.726763v1.6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/v11100964"},{"key":"2026052602300830000_2026.05.21.726763v1.7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"G\u00f3ralczyk-Bi\u0144kowska, A. , D. 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