The Human Mucosal Mycobiome and Fungal Community Interactions

With the advent of high-throughput sequencing techniques, the astonishing extent and
complexity of the microbial communities that reside within and upon us has begun to become clear.
Moreover, with advances in computing and modelling methods, we are now beginning to grasp
just how dynamic our interactions with these communities are. The diversity of both these
communities and their interactions—both within the community and with us—are dependent on a
multitude of factors, both microbial- and host-mediated. Importantly, it is becoming clear that shifts
in the makeup of these communities, or their responses, are linked to different disease states.
Although much of the work to define these interactions and links has been investigating bacterial
communities, recently there has been significant growth in the body of knowledge, indicating that
shifts in the host fungal communities (mycobiome) are also intimately linked to disease status. In
this review, we will explore these associations, along with the interactions between fungal
communities and their human and microbial habitat, and discuss the future applications of systems
biology in determining their role in disease status.