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PMID: 17293459 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Molecular analysis of human forearm superficial skin bacterial biota.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 104 ·No. 8 ·2007-02-20 ·Pages 2927-32

Gao Z, Tseng CH, Pei Z, Blaser MJ

Abstract

The microbial ecology of human skin is complex, but little is known about its species composition. We examined the diversity of the skin biota from the superficial volar left and right forearms in six healthy subjects using broad-range small subunit rRNA genes (16S rDNA) PCR-based sequencing of randomly selected clones. For the initial 1,221 clones analyzed, 182 species-level operational taxonomic units (SLOTUs) belonging to eight phyla were identified, estimated as 74.0% [95% confidence interval (C.I.), approximately 64.8-77.9%] of the SLOTUs in this ecosystem; 48.0 +/- 12.2 SLOTUs were found in each subject. Three phyla (Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria) accounted for 94.6% of the clones. Most (85.3%) of the bacterial sequences corresponded to known and cultivated species, but 98 (8.0%) clones, comprising 30 phylotypes, had <97% similarity to prior database sequences. Only 6 (6.6%) of the 91 genera and 4 (2.2%) of the 182 SLOTUs, respectively, were found in all six subjects. Analysis of 817 clones obtained 8-10 months later from four subjects showed additional phyla (numbering 2), genera (numbering 28), and SLOTUs (numbering 65). Only four (3.4%) of the 119 genera (Propionibacteria, Corynebacteria, Staphylococcus, and Streptococcus) were observed in each subject tested twice, but these genera represented 54.4% of all clones. These results show that the bacterial biota in normal superficial skin is highly diverse, with few well conserved and well represented genera, but otherwise low-level interpersonal consensus.

MeSH Terms
Adult Bacteria/classification,genetics,isolation & purification Biodiversity Clone Cells DNA, Bacterial/analysis,genetics DNA, Ribosomal/analysis,genetics Female Forearm/microbiology Humans Male Middle Aged Molecular Sequence Data Phylogeny Skin/microbiology
Chemicals
DNA, Bacterial DNA, Ribosomal
Authors & Affiliations
4 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Gao Zhan
Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
Tseng Chi-hong
Pei Zhiheng
Blaser Martin J
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Article Info
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Abbr.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.0607077104
Published
2007-02-20
Epub
2007-00-09
Pages
2927-32
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7505876
PMCID
PMC1815283
Subset
IM
Grants
NCRR NIH HHS · M01 RR000096 · United States
NCRR NIH HHS · M01 RR 00096 · United States
NCI NIH HHS · R01 CA097946 · United States
NIGMS NIH HHS · R01 GM063270 · United States
NCI NIH HHS · CA 97946 · United States
NIGMS NIH HHS · R01 GM 63270 · United States
NIAID NIH HHS · AI 063477 · United States
NIAID NIH HHS · R01 AI063477 · United States
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External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0607077104 PMC Full Text View journal details
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