Thermotolerant insect-associated selective pressure may drive increased lipid metabolic plasticity and emerging pathogenic potential in yeasts

The emergence of pathogenic yeasts such as <i>Candidozyma auris</i> represents a growing global health threat. Despite advances in fungal genomics, the ecological and physiological origins of pathogenicity in yeasts remain poorly understood. Most yeasts thrive at mesophilic temperatures, with a sharp decline in biodiversity beyond 30 °C, limiting the ability of many yeasts to infect endothermic hosts. Most insects, as ectothermic organisms with variable and often elevated body temperatures, co-exist intimately with yeasts in diverse environments and exert unique selective pressures, particularly regarding thermal stress. We hypothesise that these interactions potentially select for yeasts with enhanced lipid metabolic plasticity, a key trait underlying thermotolerance, immune evasion, nutrient adaptation, and antifungal resistance-attributes central to fungal virulence and pathogenicity and that thermotolerant insects thus act as ecological bridge for yeasts to move between the environment and endothermic hosts.