The inclusion of fungi in recent human and animal microbiome studies has revealed that microbiome features associated with health or disease are not exclusively bacterial. Factors known to impact bacterial microbiome development, such as gestational age at birth, breast feeding status and antibiotics also impact the mycobiome. Strong inter-kingdom interactions take place in the luminal gut, and while the mycobiome exhibits increased inter-individual variability, certain fungi are stable colonizers. Here, we review recent studies showing that the gut mycobiome also plays an important role in disease states related to host immunity and energy metabolism. Some persistent species, such as Candida sp., as well as other less stable colonizers have been shown to play an important role in host–mycobiome immune cross talk. Mechanisms by which gut fungi interact with immune development have begun to be elucidated yet the majority remain elusive. Further investigation into these immune and metabolic mechanisms hold great potential for novel discoveries and will provided a much needed multi-kingdom understanding of the microbiome’s influence on host health.

在最近的人类和动物微生物组研究中加入真菌表明，与健康或疾病相关的微生物组特征不仅是细菌。已知影响细菌微生物组发育的因素，例如出生胎龄、母乳喂养状态和抗生素，也会影响微生物组。强大的跨界相互作用发生在腔肠中，虽然真菌群落表现出增加的个体间变异性，但某些真菌是稳定的定植者。在这里，我们回顾了最近的研究，这些研究表明肠道菌群在与宿主免疫和能量代谢相关的疾病状态中也起着重要作用。一些持久性物种，如念珠菌sp. 以及其他不太稳定的定植者已被证明在宿主 - 真菌群落免疫串扰中发挥重要作用。肠道真菌与免疫发育相互作用的机制已经开始阐明，但大多数仍然难以捉摸。对这些免疫和代谢机制的进一步研究具有巨大的新发现潜力，并将提供对微生物群对宿主健康影响的急需的多界理解。