Abiotic and biotic effectors of colonisation in the skin microbiome

人类皮肤是一个复杂的生态系统，由多种细菌和真菌属定植，在皮肤上长期建立的群落受到许多宿主和环境因素的影响，包括身体部位、性别、年龄和药物。皮肤微生物群有助于健康和疾病，并通过相互作用产生对抗病原体的屏障功能。人类皮肤上有十几种葡萄球菌，从进化的物种形成和生态位特化来看，它们有不同的分布和频率。葡萄球菌与经常使用个人护理产品治疗体臭、头皮屑和其他皮肤状况的社区有关。皮肤上的葡萄球菌的成功只被部分理解，特别是它们与其他物种的关系和对营养物质的竞争。物种在其生态位中成功的生物和非生物效应的范围仅被部分探索，体内贡献仍有待充分表征。在这项研究中，我们将研究稳定/破坏皮肤“核心”微生物群微生物群落的非生物和生物效应物，特别关注促进葡萄球菌成功及其与其他物种和皮肤相关分子的竞争关系的机制。利用基因组学和代谢组学方法，我们将研究稳定和破坏群落相互作用的因素，以提供物种成功的新见解。

Human skin is a complex ecosystem colonised by diverse bacterial and fungal genera and the communities that establish long term on skin are influenced by many host and environmental factors, including body site, gender, age and drugs. Skin microbiota contribute to health and disease and via their interactions they produce barrier functions against pathogens. There are over a dozen Staphylococcus species on human skin that have different distributions and frequencies from evolved speciation and niche specialisation. Staphylococci are associated with communities that are routinely altered with personal care products for body odour, dandruff and other skin conditions. Success of the skin-colonising staphylococci is only partially understood, particularly their relationship with other species and competition for nutrients. The range of biotic and abiotic effectors of species success in their niche have only been partly explored and in vivo contributions remain to be fully characterised. In this studentship, we will investigate abiotic and biotic effectors that stabilise/destabilise microbial communities of the skin 'core' microbiome with particular focus on mechanisms that promote Staphylococcus success and its competitive relationship with other species and skin-relevant molecules. Using genomics and metabolomics approaches we will investigate factors that stabilise and destabilise community interactions to provide novel insights of species success.