Metagenomics Sequencing Studies Show That the Human Skin Microbial Population Is Highly Stable—CD Genomics
Shirley, NY, May 11, 2016 (Newswire.com) - May 11, 2016, a new study of metagenomics sequencing shows that our personal skin microbial environment remains highly stable despite frequently cleaning and exposing to rich-bacteria objects. This knowledge can be used to better understand a series of human skin disease, which is helpful to develop prebiotic, probiotic and microbial transplantation method.
Human skin is a ecosystem composed of a wide variety of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Although most of these microbes are harmless or beneficial, there are also some skin diseases such as acne, psoriasis, eczema and so on related to those microbes. Study of microbial population changes in the skin is the key to understand the skin diseases, such as eczema. Why dose it make an effect on the limbs and other parts of the bend. However, before this, scientists have not known how the the microbial population of skin changes over time, and how these changes affect human health.
In a recent metagenomic study, bacteria, fungi and virus population not only have a strong habitat preference in certain parts of the skin, but also play a role of microbial fingerprint, which is highly unique to the individual. In this new study, the time stability of these skin microbial population was studied.
It is surprising that skin microbial populations remain stable some time later, although they are often subjected to external perturbations, such as other people, clothes and the environment. Each person does not have the popular microorganisms from the environment, but maintains its unique microbial characteristics. However, there are differences in the microbial population stability between different humans and microbial species, some of which show more variation than others.
In addition, some skin sites have more different microbial populations than other parts. For example, oily skin, such as the external ear, contains the most stable bacterial and fungal populations, while highly exposed dry areas (such as the palm of the hand) also show significant stability after a period of time. In contrast, foot and wet place, which have high microbial diversity in areas of the skin, show the worst stability after some time. This may be caused by personal hygiene or varying environment.
One limitation of the study is that it only pays attention to a few healthy adults.
About the author:
CD genomics is a company to provide range of metagenomic sequencing services based on the platform of GenSeq™, which can be a very good approach to observe the diversity and state of microbial life.
Source: CD Genomics