First description of the composition and the functional capabilities of the skin microbial community accompanying severe scabies infestation in humans
Details
Publication Year 2021-04-23,Volume 9,Issue #5,Page 907
Journal Title
Microorganisms
Abstract
Epidemiological studies link Sarcoptes scabiei infection and impetigo. Scabies mites can promote Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A Streptococcus) and Staphylococcus aureus infections by breaching the skin barrier and excreting molecules that inhibit host innate immune responses. However, little is known about the composition and the function of the scabies-associated microbiota. Here, high-throughput whole-metagenome sequencing was used to explore the scabies-associated microbiome. Scabies mites including their immediate microenvironments were isolated from two patients with severe scabies in Northern Australia. Two ~45-50 million paired-end reads Illumina libraries were generated of which ~2 (5.1%) and 0.7 million (1.3%) microbial reads were filtered out by mapping to human (hg19) and mite draft genomes. Taxonomic profiling revealed a microbial community dominated by the phylum Firmicutes (A: 79% and B: 59%) and genera that comprise Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Acinetobacter, and Corynebacterium. Assembly of the metagenome reads resulted in genome bins representing reference genomes of Acinetobacter baumannii, Streptococcus dysgalactiae (Group C/G), Proteus mirablis and Staphylococcus aureus. The contigs contained genes relevant to pathogenicity and antibiotics resistance. Confocal microscopy of a patient skin sample confirmed A. baumannii, Streptococci and S. aureus in scabies mite gut and faeces and the surrounding skin. The study provides fundamental evidence for the association of opportunistic pathogens with scabies infection.
Publisher
MDPI
Keywords
Acinetobacter; Gas; Sarcoptes scabiei; Streptococcus; metagenomic; microbiome; microbiota; scabies; skin microbiome; skin microbiota
Research Division(s)
Bioinformatics
PubMed ID
33922793
Open Access at Publisher's Site
https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9050907
NHMRC Grants
NHMRC/1098804
Terms of Use/Rights Notice
Refer to copyright notice on published article.


Creation Date: 2021-05-11 04:12:06
Last Modified: 2021-05-11 04:18:29
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