Speaker: Dr. Sunny Jiang
Abstract:
The skin is a complex organ responsible for protecting the body from physical, chemical and biological insults. Therefore, the skin microbiome plays an important role in protecting the host from skin infections. This presentation reports changes in the skin microbiome and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), antibiotic biosynthesis genes (ABSGs) and virulence factor genes (VFGs) on the human skin before and after swimming in the ocean. Skin microbiome samples were collected from human participants’ calves before and after they swam in the ocean, and at 6 h and 24 h post-swim. The results showed that not only is the skin microbiome composition altered before and after swimming, but the abundance and diversity of ARGs, ABSGs and VFGs on the skin increased post-swim. The elevated number of ARGs persisted for at least 6 h post-swim with over a 300% increase compared to the samples collected prior to swimming in the ocean. The outcome of the study supports the epidemiological observations of the increased risk of skin infections after swimming in the ocean.
May 6, 2022 Transcript (download here)
May 6, 2022 Recording (click here)