Long-term robustness of the skin microbiome as a stable personal identity. human skin metagenome

Background: Inter-individual variability of the human skin microbiome is known to be greater than the temporal variability for an individual. However, the identification of individuals using the human skin microbiome has shown low accuracy in recent studies. Here, we demonstrate an accurate personal identification method using the human skin microbiome that can distinguish individuals even beyond a one-year sampling interval. Results: We found that the personal skin microbiome was relatively stable over one year. Therefore, we could identify individuals with >90% accuracy using the taxonomic composition of their skin microbiome. In addition, some contributors to the personal identification were bacterial species observed not only in humans but also in the environment. Conclusions: We demonstrate that the human skin microbiome represents a type of personal identity in addition to the human genome. Long-term stability of the skin microbiome thus expands the definition of the known human genetic universe. Hence, the skin microbiome is strongly controlled by its host. These results will help us understand the relationship between the human skin microbiome and health.

背景：已知人类皮肤微生物组（human skin microbiome）的个体间变异性高于单一个体的时间维度变异性。然而，近期研究表明，利用人类皮肤微生物组开展个体识别的准确率较低。本研究中，我们提出一种基于人类皮肤微生物组的高精度个体识别方法，该方法甚至可区分采样间隔超过一年的不同个体。
结果：我们发现，个体皮肤微生物组在一年时间尺度内相对稳定。据此，依托皮肤微生物组的分类学组成，我们可实现准确率超过90%的个体识别。此外，部分参与个体识别的细菌物种不仅可在人体中被检测到，也广泛存在于环境中。
结论：本研究证实，人类皮肤微生物组可作为一类独立于人类基因组的个人身份标识。因此，皮肤微生物组的长期稳定性拓展了已知人类遗传范畴的定义。由此可见，皮肤微生物组受宿主的调控作用极强。本研究结果将有助于我们深入解析人类皮肤微生物组与人体健康之间的关联。