Fungus in the Human Microbiome, Definition and Examples

Synonyms

Fungal flora; Fungal microbiome; Fungal microbiota; Mycobiome

Definition

The human mycobiome is a collection of all fungal communities present in the human body.

Introduction

Although bacteria represent the majority of the human microbiota, fungi can also successfully colonize our bodies, either as pathogens or commensals. To understand how these uninvited guests impact human health and disease, it is critical to catalog fungal species associated with the human body. Until recently, this was a nearly impossible undertaking, since many fungi are resistant to isolation and cultivation. New culture-independent (i.e., metagenomic) approaches enable researchers to identify fungi commonly associated with the skin, the oral cavity, the gastrointestinal tract, the vagina, and the lungs by sequencing the fungal genetic material recovered throughout the human body. Furthermore, such metagenomic studies can provide information on the relative abundance of the fungal taxa, species...