The microbial species available for dispersal onto the skin of any given individual likely stem from many sources including inanimate surfaces, people, pets, cosmetics, air and water ( Capone et al., 2011 Costello et al., 2009 Dominguez-Bello et al., 2010 Fierer et al., 2008 Fujimura et al., 2010 Grice & Segre, 2011 Hospodsky et al., 2012 Human Microbiome Project Consortium, 2012 Kembel et al., 2012). Skin moisture, temperature, pH and exposure to ultraviolet light are all well documented environmental factors that affect skin microbial communities ( Grice & Segre, 2011). Despite the importance of our skin microbiota, we still know very little about what shapes the distribution and diversity of the skin microbiome.Īs for any other ecosystem, the composition of the skin microbiome is determined by some combination of two simultaneous ecological processes: the selection of certain microbial species by the skin environment and the dispersal of microbes from a pool of available species. Skin microbial communities have been shown to mediate skin disorders, provide protection from pathogens, and regulate our immune system ( Costello et al., 2009 Grice & Segre, 2011 Human Microbiome Project Consortium, 2012). These communities, which vary greatly both within and among people, play an important role in human health and well-being. Microbial communities living on and in the human skin are diverse and complex. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the human skin microbiome shifts in composition during activities involving human to human contact, and that contact sports provide an ideal setting in which to evaluate dispersal of microorganisms between people. We conducted a study during a flat track roller derby tournament, and found that teammates shared distinct skin microbial communities before and after playing against another team, but that opposing teams’ bacterial communities converged during the course of a roller derby bout. We hypothesized that participation in a sport involving skin to skin contact would result in detectable shifts in skin bacterial community composition.
Culture-based studies have shown that human to human and human to surface contact mediates the dispersal of pathogens, yet little is currently known about the drivers of bacterial community assembly patterns on human skin. These complex communities vary by skin location on the body, over time, between individuals, and between geographic regions. Diverse bacterial communities live on and in human skin.