Diversity and evolution of the primate skin microbiome

Abstract

Skin microbes play a role in human body odour, health and disease. Compared with gut microbes, we know little about the changes in the composition of skin microbes in response to evolutionary changes in hosts, or more recent behavioural and cultural changes in humans. No studies have used sequence-based approaches to consider the skin microbe communities of gorillas and chimpanzees, for example. Comparison of the microbial associates of non-human primates with those of humans offers unique insights into both the ancient and modern features of our skin-associated microbes. Here we describe the microbes found on the skin of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, rhesus macaques and baboons. We focus on the bacterial and archaeal residents in the axilla using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. We find that human skin microbial communities are unique relative to those of other primates, in terms of both their diversity and their composition. These differences appear to reflect both ancient shifts during millions of years of primate evolution and more recent changes due to modern hygiene.

Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum, a human skin colonizer, induces the canonical nuclear factor‐κB inflammatory signaling pathway in human skin cells

“…Bacteria of the genus Corynebacterium account for 30% of the total bacterial inhabitants of human skin . Some Corynebacterium species are opportunistic pathogens and coexist among healthy skin flora, for example, Corynebacterium jeikeium ( C. j .…”

Variation in host preferences of malaria mosquitoes is mediated by skin bacterial volatiles

“…For example, corynebacteria, which represent the most abundant microorganisms on human skin, transform long‐chain fatty acids into short‐ and medium‐chain fatty acids (James et al ., ). Brevibacteria metabolize the short‐ and medium‐chain fatty acids even further (James et al ., ), whereas Staphylococcus species, which are also very abundant on human skin (Council et al ., ), convert amino acids to highly volatile short‐chain amino acids (James et al ., ). Mosquito vectors use some of these volatile short‐chain fatty acids to locate their blood hosts (Knols & Takken, ; Smallegange et al ., ).…”

Microorganism-mediated behaviour of malaria mosquitoes

“…This preference may be explained by corynebacteria being the most abundant microbes on the human skin (Council et al, 2016), especially on human feet (Wilson, 2008). These results closely match the results that were obtained in an olfactometer experiment with An.…”

“…gambiae, which has a strong preference for humans as a source of blood-meal and is attracted to human odour over animal odours . Some bacterial species are strongly associated with humans (Verhulst et al, 2010b;Council et al, 2016), which could have led to the production of volatiles that attracted An. gambiae more strongly than An.…”

“…For example, corynebacteria, the most abundant micro-organisms on human skin, transform long-chain fatty acids into short and medium-chain fatty acids (James et al, 2004). Brevibacteria metabolize the short and medium chain fatty acids even further (James et al, 2004), while Staphylococcus which is also very abundant on the human skin (Council et al, 2016) converts amino acids to highly volatile short-chain amino acids (James et al, 2004). Mosquito vectors use some of these volatile short-chain fatty acids to locate their blood hosts (Knols & Takken, 1997;Smallegange et al, 2011).…”