The culturome of the human nose habitats reveals individual bacterial fingerprint patterns

Abstract

The complex anatomy of the human nose might offer distinct microbial niches. Microbiota composition may affect nose inflammatory diseases and Staphylococcus aureus carriage. Considering different nasal cavity locations, microbial colonization was analysed across individuals exhibiting chronic nasal inflammatory diseases (n = 18) and those without local inflammation signs (n = 16). Samples were collected systematically during surgery and examined by an extensive culture-based approach and, for a subset, by 16S rRNA gene community profiling. Cultivation yielded 141 taxa with members of Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium and Propionibacterium as most common isolates comprising the nasal core culturome together with Finegoldia magna. Staphylococcus aureus was most frequently found in association with Staphylococcus epidermidis and Propionibacterium acnes, and the posterior vestibules were redefined as S. aureus' principle habitat. Culturome analysis revealed host-specific bacterial 'fingerprints' irrespective of host-driven factors or intranasal sites. Comparisons between cultivable and molecular fingerprints demonstrated that only a small fraction of phylotypes (6.2%) was correlated. While the total number of different phylotypes was higher in the molecular dataset, the total number of identifications down to the species level was higher in the culturomic approach. To determine host-specific microbiomes, the advantages of molecular approaches should be combined with the resolution and reliability of species identification by culturomic analyses.

The Landscape Ecology and Microbiota of the Human Nose, Mouth, and Throat

“…In this light, interpersonal variation can sometimes be viewed as a confounding variable, as it is too expansive a spatial scale across which to make inferences about the spatial organization of nasal or oral microbial communities. The extent to which interpersonal variation overshadows inter-site variation has sparked debate about whether communities inhabiting the anterior nares and the nasal mucosa differ (Yan et al, 2013) (Ramakrishnan et al, 2017)(Kaspar et al, 2016; Wos-Oxley et al, 2016). The degree to which interpersonal variation obscures finer-scale spatial or temporal patterns is evident in studies that present separate ordination plots for each subject (Hauser et al, 2016; Kaspar et al, 2016; Ramakrishnan et al, 2017) or that present a different ordination for each site coloring samples by subjects (Sato Y1, 2015; Sato et al, 2015; Wos-Oxley et al, 2016).…”

The Active Component of Aspirin, Salicylic Acid, Promotes Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Formation in a PIA-dependent Manner

“…Staphylococcus aureus is a common commensal of the human nostrils (Kaspar et al, 2016). While asymptomatic colonization of S. aureus does not necessarily lead to illness, the loss of the mucosal or epithelial surface integrity can be responsible for S. aureus diverse diseases (Fitzpatrick et al, 2005).…”

Exploring the bacterial assemblages along the human nasal passage

“…() who assessed the culturome of 34 individuals. Considering the great heterogeneity in the global bacterial communities across individuals (Camarinha‐Silva et al ., ; Human Microbiome Project, ; Camarinha‐Silva et al ., ; Kaspar et al ., ), studies comprising limited numbers of individuals do not allow formulation of statistically significant conclusions. In addition, all of these studies including those comparing persistent S. aureus carriers with non‐carriers or non‐persistent carriers (Frank et al ., ; Yan et al ., ) almost always involve swabbing the epithelium.…”