Mycobiome and Gut Inflammation: Implications in Gut Disease

Abstract The current age of high throughput sequencing has revealed to us the amazing complexity and extent of the microbial communities we play host to. Moreover, we are now beginning to understand just how dynamic the interactions between the host and members of these communities are. These interactions are diverse, and the variations in these communities observed between individuals are dependent on a multitude of different microbial and host factors, including inflammatory status. More importantly, it is becoming clear that different disease states are linked to significant changes in the makeup of these communities. While much energy has gone into defining these changes in bacterial communities, there is clear and growing evidence that shifts in host fungal communities (mycobiome) are also intimately linked with disease. In this chapter, we will explore the associations and potential role that the mycobiome plays in gut inflammatory diseases.