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Fungal evolution

The human gut mycobiome in the context of primate evolution

Nature Reviews Microbiology (2025)Cite this article

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Fungi in the human gut microbiome (the mycobiome) are not as well explored as other gut microbial communities. Van Syoc et al. investigated the human gut mycobiome in the context of primate evolution by compiling internal transcribed spacer region 2 (ITS2; a molecular marker for phylogenetic analysis) data from 183 gut fungal samples obtained from 2 non-industrialized human populations and 7 groups of non-human primates (NHPs). NHP samples were from free-ranging social groups of three species of apes, three species of cercopithedes (old-world monkeys) and a species of lemur (Indri indri). The researchers investigated phylosymbiosis, which describes notable associations between host phylogenetic relationships and host-associated microbial communities. At a broad scale, primate hosts were found to harbour distinct fungal communities and notable degrees of primate–mycobiome phylosymbiosis were observed. The human gut mycobiome could be distinguished from other NHP species by changes in abundant and rare taxa. Interestingly, some subsets of fungi were co-phylogenetic with hominids. Moreover, time-calibrated sequence divergence of co-phylogenetic fungi matched hominid divergence times. The authors conclude that this work supports eco-evolutionary influences on the assembly of the gut mycobiome across human and primate evolutionary history.

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  1. Nature Reviews Microbiology http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/

    Shimona Starling

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  1. Shimona Starling
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Correspondence to Shimona Starling.

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Starling, S. The human gut mycobiome in the context of primate evolution. Nat Rev Microbiol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-025-01250-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-025-01250-2

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