Fig 1.
Gut fungi modulate host physiology.
Illustrated are three fungal species investigated in the context of intestinal mycobiome-host interactions. Early life colonization of gnotobiotic mice with Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, a red-pigmented yeast, alters gut bacterial community composition. In mice fed a high-fat-high-sucrose diet, R. mucilaginosa exacerbates metabolic disease, albeit through unknown mechanisms. Dietary oleic acid, one of the most abundant long-chain fatty acids in nature, enhances Candida albicans intestinal colonization by promoting modifications to the yeast cell surface that facilitate binding to gut mucin. The filamentous fungus Fusarium foetens produces a secondary metabolite that targets an intestinal ceramide synthetase isoform (CerS6), alleviating metabolic disfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) progression in mice. Created in Biorender (https://BioRender.com/o0vu429).