Overview

• A peer-reviewed paper from Pennsylvania State University reports the first ternary links among human genetic variation, gut fungi, and chronic disease risk.
• Using paired host-genome and gut-mycobiome data from 125 Human Microbiome Project participants, researchers ran a genome-wide association study.
• The team identified 148 fungi-associated variants across seven chromosomes that correlate with the relative abundance of nine fungal taxa.
• A notable signal involves the yeast Kazachstania, which the authors report as preliminarily associated with cardiovascular disease risk and in need of validation.
• The discovery cohort was small, one key association was replicated in a larger independent sample, further mechanistic and population studies are needed, and the authors disclose a pending patent.