Identifying potential hosts of short-branch Microsporidia

Microsporidia are obligate parasites that are closely related to Fungi. While the widely-known “long-branch” Microsporidia infect mostly animals, the hosts of “short-branch” Microsporidia are only partially characterized or not known at all. Here, we used network analyses from Neotropical rainforest soil metabarcoding data, to infer co-occurrences between environmental lineages of short-branch microsporidians and their potential hosts. We found significant co-occurrences with several taxa, especially with Apicomplexa, Cercozoa, Fungi, as well as some Metazoa. Our results are the first step to identify potential hosts of the environmental lineages of short-branch microsporidians, which can be targeted in future molecular and microscopic studies.