Department of Computing, Faculty of Technology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Department of Zoology, Centre of Advanced Study, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India.
Environ Microbiol. 2022 Sep;24(9):3840-3860. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.15945. Epub 2022 Mar 7.
Skin is a complex organ serving a critical role as a barrier and mediator of interactions between the human body and its environment. Recent studies have uncovered how resident microbial communities play a significant role in maintaining the normal healthy function of the skin and the immune system. In turn, numerous host-associated and environmental factors influence these communities' composition and diversity across the cutaneous surface. In addition, specific compositional changes in skin microbiota have also been connected to the development of several chronic diseases. The current era of microbiome research is characterized by its reliance on large data sets of nucleotide sequences produced with high-throughput sequencing of sample-extracted DNA. These approaches have yielded new insights into many previously uncharacterized microbial communities. Application of standardized practices in the study of skin microbial communities could help us understand their complex structures, functional capacities, and health associations and increase the reproducibility of the research. Here, we overview the current research in human skin microbiomes and outline challenges specific to their study. Furthermore, we provide perspectives on recent advances in methods, analytical tools and applications of skin microbiomes in medicine and forensics.
皮肤是一种复杂的器官，作为人体与其环境之间相互作用的屏障和介质，起着至关重要的作用。最近的研究揭示了常驻微生物群落如何在维持皮肤和免疫系统的正常健康功能方面发挥重要作用。反过来，许多宿主相关和环境因素会影响这些群落在皮肤表面的组成和多样性。此外，皮肤微生物组的特定组成变化也与几种慢性疾病的发展有关。当前的微生物组研究时代的特点是依赖于高通量测序提取的 DNA 样本进行测序所产生的大量核苷酸序列数据集。这些方法为许多以前未被描述的微生物群落提供了新的见解。在皮肤微生物群落研究中应用标准化实践可以帮助我们了解它们复杂的结构、功能能力以及与健康的关联，并提高研究的可重复性。在这里，我们综述了人类皮肤微生物组的当前研究，并概述了其研究特有的挑战。此外，我们还就皮肤微生物组在医学和法医学中的方法、分析工具和应用的最新进展提供了一些观点。
