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Review
. 2020 Aug:56:1-6.
doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2020.05.004. Epub 2020 Jun 27.

Minority report: the intestinal mycobiota in systemic infections

Thierry Rolling  1 , Tobias M Hohl  2 , Bing Zhai  3
Affiliations
Review

Minority report: the intestinal mycobiota in systemic infections

Thierry Rolling et al. Curr Opin Microbiol. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Compared to bacteria, fungi often exhibit a lower abundance and a higher temporal volatility in the intestinal microbiota. Analysis of fungi in the microbiota (mycobiota) faces technical limitations with tools that were originally developed for analyzing bacteria. Dysbiotic states of the intestinal mycobiota, often associated with disruption of the healthy bacterial microbiota, are characterized by overgrowth (domination) of specific fungal taxa and loss of diversity. Intestinal domination by Candida species has been shown to be a major source of Candida bloodstream infections. Fungal dysbiosis is also linked to the development and treatment response in non-fungal infections, for example Clostridioides difficile colitis and HIV. Further research is needed to define the contribution of intestinal mycobiota to human fungal and non-fungal infections.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The fungal reads and non-fungal reads in metagenomic sequencing data of human fecal samples (A) without Candida domination, and (B) with Candida domination. Sample B was collected from a patient with active candidemia. The fungal reads account for <0.01% of total reads in sample A, and close to 50% of total reads in sample B.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The dynamics of intestinal fungal and bacterial flora in the context of fungal bloodstream infection. This abstractive figure was plotted by re-analyzing data from a previously published study [**].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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