Print PageHuman skin hosts diverse communities of symbiotic bacteria. Conventional approach to studying skin microbes focused on individual bacterial taxa related to human health, and involved culturing approaches. This not only failed to provide data for even basic understanding of ecology, specificity, and turnover of human bacterial communities, but also skewed popular perception of such symbionts towards disease-causing germs. In our project, we set out to sample human skin microbiota from hundreds of diverse citizens, quantify key ecological descriptors of the communities, and engage the public in the research in order to transform the popular perception of healthy communities of skin symbionts.
We chose the navel (”belly button”) as the sampling target due to a) good representation of individual microbiota due to the lack of excretions, b) lack of disturbance (limited exposure to UV and soap), and c) to facilitate excitement about the research in sampling subjects. Bacterial communities are assessed in two ways: 1) for our research purpose, we amplify community DNA isolated from each sample 16S rDNA with universal bacterial primers appended with multiplex identifiers, and sequence pooled samples on GS FLX Titanium pyrosequencer. 2) For public information, each sample is grown on general media, photographed, and displayed on-line (wildlifeofyourbody.org).
Results/Conclusions
Preliminary research results: a) We accumulated skin bacteria from belly buttons of 391 individuals from across the nation, including metadata on sex, ethnic background, age, hygienic habits. etc. b) We confirmed viability of 80% of the samples by culturing, and c) we are currently in the process of sequencing the rDNA amplicons. Preliminary assessment of cultures revealed unexpected temporal stability of communities within samplees, significant turnover between samplees, and tentative similarity of bacterial communities within human families.
Preliminary Citizen Involvement results: a) We have developed an efficient pipeline for culturing and displaying personal bacterial samples on-line for the lay public. b) The resulting Bellybutton Bacteria Culture database became one of the most watched Citizen Science projects in the nation (55,000 visitors in three months). c) The rate of voluntary participation at a sampling event is 17% within passing-by visitors, but approximately 80% when brief explanation of the project’s purpose is given. Underserved minorities volunteer to participate in near-natural proportion (i.e., 10% of samples originated from self-identified Hispanic citizens). The attention to this project from health-conscious public and health-related media meets and exceeds the broader impacts goal of federal funding agencies.
