title: Impact of technical sources of variation on the hand microbiome dynamics of healthcare workers.
abstract: We assessed the dynamics of hand microbial community structure of 34 healthcare workers from a single surgical intensive care unit over a short (3 week) time period, whilst taking into account the technical sources of variability introduced by specimen collection, DNA extraction, and sequencing. Sample collection took place at 3 different time points. Only the sampling collection method appeared to have a significant impact on the observed hand microbial community structure among the healthcare workers. Analysis of samples collected using glove-juice showed a slightly more similar microbial composition within individual hand samples over time than between the hands of different individuals over time. This was not true for samples collected using a swab, where samples from a single individual were no more similar to each other over time than those among other individuals over time, suggesting they were essentially independent. DNA extraction techniques (lysozyme only versus enzyme cocktail) and sequencing (replicate set 1 versus 2) using Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine, were not influential to the microbial community structures. Glove-juice sample collection may likely be the method of choice in hand hygiene studies in the healthcare setting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Allison E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Aiello
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chenoweth
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Larson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gloor
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Betsy
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Foxman
mesh_terms: D003422:Critical Care; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics; D006225:Hand / Q000382:microbiology*; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D064307:Microbiota / Q000235:genetics*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial