Skin Microbiome, Metabolome and Skin Phenome, from the Perspectives of Skin as an Ecosystem

Huizhen Chen; Qi Zhao; Qian Zhong; Cheng Duan; Jean Krutmann; Jiucun Wang; Jingjing Xia

doi:10.1007/s43657-022-00073-y

Skin Microbiome, Metabolome and Skin Phenome, from the Perspectives of Skin as an Ecosystem

Phenomics. 2022 Oct 10;2(6):363-382. doi: 10.1007/s43657-022-00073-y. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Authors

Huizhen Chen¹, Qi Zhao^{2

3}, Qian Zhong¹, Cheng Duan⁴, Jean Krutmann³, Jiucun Wang^{1

5}, Jingjing Xia⁴

Affiliations

¹ Human Phenome Institute, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200438 China.
² Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012 China.
³ IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf, D-40225 Germany.
⁴ Greater Bay Area Institute of Precision Medicine (Guangzhou), School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Guangzhou, 511458 China.
⁵ Research Unit of Dissecting the Population Genetics and Developing New Technologies for Treatment and Prevention of Skin Phenotypes and Dermatological Diseases (2019RU058), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Shanghai, 200438 China.

Abstract

Skin is a complex ecosystem colonized by millions of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Skin microbiota is believed to exert critical functions in maintaining host skin health. Profiling the structure of skin microbial community is the first step to overview the ecosystem. However, the community composition is highly individualized and extremely complex. To explore the fundamental factors driving the complexity of the ecosystem, namely the selection pressures, we review the present studies on skin microbiome from the perspectives of ecology. This review summarizes the following: (1) the composition of substances/nutrients in the cutaneous ecological environment that are derived from the host and the environment, highlighting their proposed function on skin microbiota; (2) the features of dominant skin commensals to occupy ecological niches, through self-adaptation and microbe-microbe interactions; (3) how skin microbes, by their structures or bioactive molecules, reshape host skin phenotypes, including skin immunity, maintenance of skin physiology such as pH and hydration, ultraviolet (UV) protection, odor production, and wound healing. This review aims to re-examine the host-microbe interactions from the ecological perspectives and hopefully to give new inspiration to this field.

Keywords: Ecological niches; Metabolome; Microbe–microbe interactions; Phenome; Skin microbiome.

Publication types

Review