Microsporidia are obligate parasites that are closely related to Fungi. While the widely known “long-branch” Microsporidia infect mostly metazoans, the hosts of “short-branch” Microsporidia are only partially characterized or not known at all. Here, we used network analyses from Neotropical rainforest soil metabarcoding data, to infer co-occurrences between environmental lineages of short-branch microsporidians and their potential hosts. We found significant co-occurrences with several taxa, especially with Apicomplexa, Cercozoa, and Fungi, as well as some Metazoa. Our results are the first step to identify potential hosts of the environmental lineages of short-branch microsporidians, which can be targeted in future molecular and microscopic studies.

微孢子虫是与真菌密切相关的专性寄生虫。虽然广为人知的“长枝”微孢子虫主要感染后生动物，但“短枝”微孢子虫的宿主只是部分表征或根本不知道。在这里，我们使用来自新热带雨林土壤元条形码数据的网络分析来推断短枝微孢子虫的环境谱系与其潜在宿主之间的共现。我们发现与几个分类群有显着的共存，特别是与顶复门、尾节和真菌，以及一些后生动物。我们的研究结果是确定短枝微孢子虫环境谱系潜在宿主的第一步，可作为未来分子和显微镜研究的目标。