The skin microbiome of cohabiting couples

Humans shed over one million microorganisms hourly, changing the microbiome of contacted surfaces and the rooms they occupy. Although cohabiting with other individuals may impact an individual’s skin microbiome, no study has yet explored the relationship between the skin microbial communities from a variety of body regions of intimate cohabiting couples. To test the hypothesis that cohabitation leads to shared skin microbial communities, we sampled 17 skin sites from 20 individuals (i.e., 10 sexually active cohabiting couples), including moist, oily, and dry regions. Amplified 16S rRNA genes of bacteria and archaea from a total of 340 skin swabs were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing to identify links between microbial profiles and associated metadata. The results generated from a PERMANOVA analysis demonstrated that cohabitation was significantly associated with microbial community composition, although it was greatly exceeded by characteristics of body location and the individual sampled. Cohabiting couples had the most similar overall microbial skin communities on their feet according to Bray Curtis distances and were the closest to their partner’s sample 35 % of the time. In contrast, thigh microbial communities were strongly correlated with gender rather than cohabiting partner. Additional factors that influenced the skin microbiome of specific body locations included the use of skin care products, pet ownership, and skin conditions. These baseline data identified links between the skin microbiome and daily human interactions among cohabiting individuals, adding to known factors that shape the human microbiome and its relation to health and disease.