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Community assembly of the human piercing microbiome
Charles C Y Xu1,2, Juliette Lemoine1,2,3, Avery Albert1,4,5
1Redpath Museum, McGill University, 859 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 0C4.
Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|November 29, 2023
Summary
Human skin piercings reveal how microbial communities assemble after environmental change. Initially random, these communities become more structured and complex over time, offering insights into ecosystem health.
Area of Science:
- Microbial Ecology
- Community Assembly
- Human Microbiome Studies
Background:
- Understanding biological community assembly is crucial for predicting responses to environmental disturbances.
- Human skin piercings offer a unique model system to study community assembly in a novel ecological niche.
- The skin microbiome is influenced by both stochastic and deterministic processes, depending on environmental factors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the dynamics of microbial community assembly within human ear piercings.
- To determine the roles of stochastic and deterministic processes in piercing microbiome development.
- To observe interactions between dominant bacterial species and their response to changing microenvironments.
Main Methods:
- Utilized human ear piercings as a model system for microbial community assembly.
- Employed skin sterilization to create a 'clean slate' for microbial colonization.
- Analyzed microbiome composition and changes over time within piercings.
Main Results:
- Microbial community assembly in piercings was initially stochastic but became increasingly deterministic over time.
- Piercing microbiomes exhibited growing diversity and ecological complexity.
- Observed shifts in dominant species like Cutibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus epidermidis, suggesting competitive exclusion.
Conclusions:
- Human skin piercings serve as valuable models for studying ecosystem engineering and microbial community assembly.
- The transition from stochastic to deterministic assembly in piercings provides insights into ecological succession.
- Findings have implications for understanding both ecosystem health and human health, particularly concerning skin microbiomes.
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