A diversity profile of the human skin microbiota.

By Elizabeth A. Grice, H. Kong, Gabriel Renaud, Alice C. Young, Gerard G. Bouffard, R. Blakesley, Tyra G. Wolfsberg, M. Turner, J. Segre. Genome Research, 2008

965 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The many layers and structures of the skin serve as elaborate hosts to microbes, including a diversity of commensal and pathogenic bacteria that contribute to both human health and disease. To determine the complexity and identity of the microbes inhabiting the skin, we sequenced bacterial 16S small-subunit ribosomal RNA genes isolated from the inner elbow of five healthy human subjects. This analysis revealed 113 operational taxonomic units (OTUs; "phylotypes") at the level of 97% similarity that belong to six bacterial divisions. To survey all depths of the skin, we sampled using three methods: swab, scrape, and punch biopsy. Proteobacteria dominated the skin microbiota at all depths of sampling. Interpersonal variation is approximately equal to intrapersonal variation when considering bacterial community membership and structure. Finally, we report strong similarities in the complexity and identity of mouse and human skin microbiota. This study of healthy human skin microbiota will serve to direct future research addressing the role of skin microbiota in health and disease, and metagenomic projects addressing the complex physiological interactions between the skin and the microbes that inhabit this environment.

Subfields: Dermatology, Molecular Biology, Urology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cdfc399d44ca20be8ef9e598ca77afbd7dae0353

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Citations in the corpus

Role of the Microbiota in Immunity and inflammation (2014, background): “Although the skin is a rather inhospitable environment—poor in nutrients and moisture—up to 1 billion bacteria inhabit a typical square centimeter of human skin, covering the surface and extending down into the sebaceous glands and hair follicles (Grice et al., 2008).”
The skin microbiome (2011, background): “Molecular analysis of skin microbiota Genomic approaches to characterize skin bacteria have revealed a much greater diversity of organisms than that revealed by culture-based method”
Disordered Microbial Communities in Asthmatic Airways (2010, methodology): “Culture-independent molecular methods have already shown that the microbiota of humans is far greater in extent than previously recognised [14,15,16].”
The influence of sex, handedness, and washing on the diversity of hand surface bacteria (2008, background): “1 and Table S1) appear to be more similar to the communities found on forearm skin (6) than to the communities found on the forehead (19) or inner elbow (7), suggesting that skin bacterial communities are not uniform across the body and that skin surfaces closer in proximity may harbor more similar ”
Fast UniFrac: Facilitating high-throughput phylogenetic analyses of microbial communities including analysis of pyrosequencing and PhyloChip data (2009, background): “…et al ., 2007) and related efforts to study microbial communities occupying various human body habitats are showing a surprising amount of diversity among individuals in skin (Fierer et al ., 2008; Grice et al ., 2008), gut (Turnbaugh et al ., 2009), and mouth ecosystems (Nasidze et al ., 2009).”
Microbial community profiling for human microbiome projects: Tools, techniques, and challenges. (2009, background): “2; see also Eckburg et al. 2005; Frank et al. 2007; Ley et al. 2008a; Turnbaugh et al. 2009), in their saliva (Nasidze et al. 2009), and on their hands (Fierer et al. 2008; Grice et al. 2008), both in terms of which species are present and in terms of the relative ratios of the bacterial phyla.”