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Gut fungal profiles reveal phylosymbiosis and codiversification across humans and nonhuman primates

Summary

Researchers studied fungal communities in the guts of humans and various primates to understand how these fungi evolved alongside their hosts. They discovered that more closely related primate species have more similar fungal communities, and that some fungi show signs of evolving together with primates over millions of years. These findings suggest that gut fungi are long-term partners with their hosts rather than temporary travelers from diet alone.

Background

Gut fungi (mycobiome) are understudied components of the human microbiome despite emerging evidence linking them to health and disease. Previous research on gut microbial eco-evolutionary patterns has focused primarily on bacteria, leaving fundamental questions about fungal assembly unanswered.

Objective

To investigate whether gut fungal communities exhibit phylosymbiosis and cospeciation patterns consistent with long-term host-microbial associations by comparing fungal profiles across humans and nonhuman primates across multiple primate families.

Results

Significant phylosymbiosis was detected between primate hosts and gut mycobiomes at OTU level using both Bray-Curtis and Jaccard distances. Eleven of 45 OTUs displayed significant cophylogenetic signals with hominids, with five taxa showing temporal concordance between fungal and hominid speciation events. Twelve fungal genera including Saccharomyces and Pichia were enriched in human mycobiomes compared to nonhuman primates.

Conclusion

Evidence for phylosymbiosis and cospeciation in gut fungi suggests eco-evolutionary influences on mycobiome assembly across primate evolution. These findings establish fungi as important components of host-associated microbial communities and support the hypothesis of long-term fungal-host associations beyond transient dietary acquisition.
  • Published in:PLoS Biology,
  • Study Type:Comparative Genomics Study,
  • Source: PMID: 40982467, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003390
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