PRJNA383404
Topical antimicrobial treatments elicit shifts to resident skin bacterial communities and reduce colonization by Staphylococcus aureus competitors
The skin microbiome is a complex ecosystem with important implications for cutaneous health and disease. This includes its ability to educate the immune system and promote key epidermal barrier functions during infection. Despite their widespread use, the effects of topical antibiotics and antiseptics on these communities have been largely understudied. Instead the majority of work has focused on their effect in pathogenic bacteria, with little regard for their influence on broader communities. Here, we report the longitudinal impact of topical antibiotics and antiseptics on skin bacterial communities. In response to antibiotics, cutaneous populations exhibited an immediate and long-term shift in bacterial residents. By contrast, antiseptics elicited only minor changes to underlying communities. Upon deeper analysis, we detected a conserved decrease in Staphylococcus residents, a group which varied greatly in response to both antimicrobial and environmental pressures. These particular inhabitants were also shown to compete with Staphylococcus aureus for colonization at the skin surface, a stable effect which extended to multiple resident Staphylococcus species. This study demonstrates that antimicrobial drugs have distinct and durable effects on skin bacterial residents, and that these alterations have important ramifications for infection by pathogenic bacteria such as S. aureus.