Esophageal mycobiome landscape and interkingdom interactions in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The study purpose was to characterize the mycobiome and its associations with the expression of pathogenic genes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

METHODS: Patients with primary ESCC were recruited from two central hospitals. We performed internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) ribosomal DNA sequencing analysis. We compared differential fungi and explored the ecology of fungi and the interaction of bacteria and fungi.

RESULTS: The mycobiota diversity was significantly different between tumors and tumor-adjacent samples. We further analysed the differences between the two groups, at the species level, confirming that Rhodotorula toruloides , Malassezia dermatis , Hanseniaspora lachancei , and Spegazzinia tessarthra were excessively colonized in the tumor samples, whereas Preussia persica , Fusarium solani , Nigrospora oryzae , Acremonium furcatum , Golovinomyces artemisiae , and Tausonia pullulans were significantly more abundant in tumor-adjacent samples. The fungal co-occurrence network in tumor-adjacent samples was larger and denser than that in tumors. Similarly, the more complex bacterial-fungal interactions in tumor-adjacent samples were also detected. The expression of mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase was positively correlated with the abundance of N. oryzae and T. pullulans in tumor-adjacent samples. In tumors, the expression of MET proto-oncogene, receptor tyrosine kinase (MET) had a negative correlation and a positive correlation with the abundance of R. toruloides and S. tessarthra , respectively.

CONCLUSION: This study revealed the landscape of the esophageal mycobiome characterized by an altered fungal composition and bacterial and fungal ecology in ESCC.