Humans Are Selectively Exposed to Pneumocystis jirovecii

Environmental exposure has a significant impact on human health. While some airborne fungi can cause life-threatening infections, the impact of environment on fungal spore dispersal and transmission is poorly understood. The democratization of shotgun metagenomics allows us to explore important questions about fungal propagation. We focus on , a genus of host-specific fungi that infect mammals via airborne particles. In humans, causes lethal infections in immunocompromised patients if untreated, although its environmental reservoir and transmission route remain unclear. Here, we attempt to clarify, by analyzing human exposome metagenomic data sets, whether humans are exposed to different species present in the air but only cells are able to replicate or whether they are selectively exposed to Our analysis supports the latter hypothesis, which is consistent with a local transmission model. These data also suggest that healthy carriers are a major driver for the transmission.