The phageome in normal and inflamed human skin

Dysbiosis of skin microbiota drives the progression of atopic dermatitis (AD). The contribution of the cutaneous phageome to bacterial community compositions in normal and inflamed skin is unknown. Using shotgun metagenomics from skin swabs of healthy individuals and AD patients, we discovered a total of 13586 potential viral contiguous DNA sequences (contigs) distributed over 182 metagenome samples, which could be combined into 164 putative bacteriophage genomes including integrated prophages (15.2%). While the Shannon diversity index for the viral metagenome-assembled genomes (vMAGs) did not correlate with AD, 28 of them differed significantly between normal and AD skin. qPCR validation of three complete vMAGs revealed a discorrelation between phage and host bacterium abundance. These data suggest that normal and inflamed skin harbor distinct phageomes and that specific bacteriophages may contribute to AD pathogenesis through modulating bacterial fitness.