title: Diversity and evolution of the primate skin microbiome.
abstract: Skin microbes play a role in human body odour, health and disease. Compared with gut microbes, we know little about the changes in the composition of skin microbes in response to evolutionary changes in hosts, or more recent behavioural and cultural changes in humans. No studies have used sequence-based approaches to consider the skin microbe communities of gorillas and chimpanzees, for example. Comparison of the microbial associates of non-human primates with those of humans offers unique insights into both the ancient and modern features of our skin-associated microbes. Here we describe the microbes found on the skin of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, rhesus macaques and baboons. We focus on the bacterial and archaeal residents in the axilla using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. We find that human skin microbial communities are unique relative to those of other primates, in terms of both their diversity and their composition. These differences appear to reflect both ancient shifts during millions of years of primate evolution and more recent changes due to modern hygiene.
authors.affiliation: Center for Science, Math and Technology Education, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27707, USA North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC 27601, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Council
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Center for Computational & Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ 08103, USA.
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Savage
authors.affiliation: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC 27601, USA.
authors.forename: Julie M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Urban
authors.affiliation: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC 27601, USA.
authors.forename: Megan E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Ehlers
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Research Drive, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
authors.forename: J H Pate
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Skene
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Research Drive, Durham, NC 27710, USA Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA Department of Marketing, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Michael L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Platt
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Ecology and Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Ø 2100, Denmark.
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27707, USA North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC 27601, USA Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA julie.horvath@naturalsciences.org.
authors.forename: Julie E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Horvath
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D006071:Gorilla gorilla / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000382:microbiology; D064307:Microbiota; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000382:microbiology; D010215:Papio / Q000382:microbiology; D011323:Primates / Q000382:microbiology*; D019642:RNA, Archaeal / Q000737:chemistry; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D019642:RNA, Archaeal; D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal
keywords: axilla; microbe; microbiome; microbiota; primate; skin