Skin: primeval microbes live on humans

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MunichYou live in eternal ice or in simmering hot springs: primeval preforms of bacteria, the so-called archaea. For a long time it was thought that survivors only felt comfortable under extreme conditions until they were discovered in the ground, in water or in the human intestines. Researchers at the University of Regensburg have now made an astonishing find: Archaea apparently also feel good on human skin.

Notes between spaceships and space probes

The idea that archaea might be found on human skin came from Dr. Christine Moissl-Eichinger and her team investigating clean rooms. Spaceships and space probes, for example, are assembled in them. It has to be absolutely sterile there, so there shouldn't actually be any bacteria and Co. in it. Nevertheless, the researchers were able to detect traces of archaea in the clean rooms. The only explanation: They must have got there by people who worked on the spacecraft.

The scientists collected swab samples of human skin from a total of 58 test subjects, from babies to eighty-year-olds. Archaea could be detected in all samples, but in very different numbers. "In some you find very few of these microorganisms, in others the archaea make up up to 20 percent of the skin microflora," explains Moissl-Eichinger to The researchers did not find a connection between age and the amount of primeval inhabitants on the skin.

Global players in the nitrogen cycle and on the human skin?

The Hautarchaeen belong to the group of the so-called Thaumarchaeota - which normally play an important role in the nitrogen cycle of the earth. The human skin also constantly excretes a nitrogen compound, namely ammonium. "If the microorganisms oxidize the ammonium, this could affect the pH regulation of the skin," says Moissl-Eichinger. This means that the primeval microbes would play an important role in skin health. It is still unclear whether an increased number of archaea will have a positive or negative effect. The scientists now want to investigate this question. (away)

Source: Probst J.P. and Moissl-Eichinger et al .: Archaea on human skin, PLOS ONE, 2013

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