The avian lung mycobiome: local environments predict community diversity and composition

We characterized the avian lung mycobiome using ITS2 fungal metabarcoding and culturing from 195 avian lung samples representing 32 host species across 12 orders. Notably both yeast taxa including Malassezia, Cryptococcus, Saccharomyces, Meyerozyma, and Aureobasidium as well as several filamentous fungi including Cladosporium, Alternaria, Neurospora, Fusarium, and Aspergillus were widespread and abundant. Host dispersal, diet, and phylogeny explained modest variation among fungal community diversity. Our results suggest bird lung fungal communities are predominantly shaped by local environments, with a smaller component associated with aspects of host life history traits and phylosymbiosis.