Abstract
Understanding the microbial community structure of the human skin is important for treating cutaneous diseases; however, little is known regarding skin fungal communities (mycobiomes). The aim of the present study was to investigate the features of and variations in skin fungal communities during infancy in 110 subjects less than 6 months of age. Skin samples were obtained from the back, antecubital fossa, and volar forearm, while physiological parameters including transepidermal water loss, pH, surface moisture, and deep layer hydration were evaluated. Skin fungal diversity decreased after the first three months of life. Differences in fungal community composition were greater among individual infants than among the three skin sites in the same individual. Inter- and intra-individual variation were similar and lower, respectively, than the variability between two samples obtained 12 weeks apart, from the same site in the same subject, suggesting low stability of fungal communities on infant skin. Skin physiological parameters showed little correlation with skin fungal community structure. Additionally, Malassezia was the most represented genus (36.43%) and M. globosa was the most abundant species in Malassezia with its abundance decreasing from 54.06% at 0–2 months to 34.54% at 5–6 months. These findings provide a basis for investigating the causative fungi-skin interactions associated with skin diseases.
Highlights
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Microbial Symbioses, a section of the journal Frontiers in MicrobiologyReceived: 20 March 2020 Accepted: 08 July 2020 Published: 28 July 2020Citation: Zhu T, Duan Y-Y, Kong F-Q, Galzote C and Quan Z-X (2020) Dynamics of Skin Mycobiome in Infants
This study investigated the skin mycobiome in healthy infants through the differences among skin mycobiomes and simultaneously, the degree of change after a short time
Schizophyllum, which was reported to exist in the human oral environment and indoor surfaces (Schmidt, 2007; Peters et al, 2017), was abundant on the antecubital fossa of infants
Summary
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Microbial Symbioses, a section of the journal Frontiers in MicrobiologyReceived: 20 March 2020 Accepted: 08 July 2020 Published: 28 July 2020. Studies on infant skin commensal fungus are even rarer (Findley et al, 2013; Jo et al, 2016). This represents a key knowledge gap, because the status of early skin microbes could have a profound impact on skin functionality and vulnerability in future disturbances (Ward et al, 2017; Lynch and Hsiao, 2019; Zhu et al, 2019)
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