Skin Commensals: Lots of Them Staphylococcus Epidermis

Lecture 16
Symbiosis: close association of two or more dissimilar organisms

Types of symbiosis
- Positive
o Mutualism: both species benefit and depend on each other for survival
o Cooperation: both species benefit but do not depend on each for survival
o Commensalism: one species benefits while other unaffected
- Negative
o Predation: one species preys on another
o Parasitism: one species benefits while other harms; coexistence between host and
parasite – enables parasite to grow in host
o Amensalism: one species kills other species
o Competition: one species outcompetes other for resouces
Commensalism: ‘eating at the same table’

Ex. Organisms that live on all surfaces of an animal exposed to the environment
- Normal microbiota (commensals)
- skin commensals: lots of them  Staphylococcus epidermis
- with constant exposure to microbes, why don’t the microbes invade skin more frequently in
healthy people?
o Skin is good barrier
o Inhospitable environment for most microbes – contains 10^12 bacteria
 Resident microbiota: grow on the skin
 Transient microbiota: temporarily on skin
- Organic acids: free fatty acid production by skin microbes decreases skin pH (aw = very low)
- Keratinized layer: tough surface layer, constantly sloughed
- NaCl: produced, increased solute concentration of skin
- Lysozyme: enzyme that cleaves bacterial cell walls; cleaves the NAM-NAG bonds in
peptidoglycan
o Tear and sweat glands produce lysozyme
Colon commensals
- Colon has greatest amount of biodiversity in microbes including bacteria, viruses, protozoa and
fungi
- More than 400 species
- E. coli is less than 0.1% of total
- Total number of bacteria in colon: 10^14  based on 16s rRNA analysis
- Most microbes cannot be cultivated in lab
- Oxygen requirements: FA, OA
- Colon microbial population doubles once/twice a day
- Human adult eliminates 10^13 microorganisms a day

- With such high numbers, how does the intestinal mucosa avoid constant attachment and
invasion by microorganisms?
o Peristalsis: contents move by smooth muscle action
o Mucous secretion and flow decrease the probability of attachment (goblet cells)
o Epithelial cell sloughing (desquamation)
- Are animals without commensals viable  yes, gnotobiotic animals

- Birthed and raised in sterile environments
- Animals are physiologically different
o Thinner gut walls
o Poorly developed lymphoid (immune) tissue
o Contract infectious diseases with lower inocula
o No dental caries
o Require higher amounts of vitamins B and K (produced by commensals)
- The production of vitamins can be considered a mutualistic association
- Presence of certain gut microbes may prime the immune system so that it responds more
effectively to pathogens
Mutualism: symbionic relationship in which there is a metabolic interdependence of symbionts (both

species benefit)
- Ex. Reticulitermes (termite) and Triconympha (protist)
- Lives in termite hindgut
- Triconympha degrades the cellulose that termite eats (wood)
- Carbon source: wood, high in carbon, low in Nitrogen
- Nitrogen source:
o Triconympha: has its own symbiont called Endomicrobia – fixes nitrogen
o N available to all three organisms
To test metabolic interdependence between Reticulitermes and associated protist

- Expose termites to hyperbaric oxygen
- Protist dies
- Termite survives initially
- Ultimately dies of starvation
Parasitism: one symbiont grows at expense of host and host is harmed

- Infectious disease: microbe or products damage host
- Pathogen: cause infectious disease
- Parasite: symbiont that harms the host
To a microbiologist, parasite = protozoans (plasmodium  malaria) or worms (tapeworms)
Factors that affect the outcome between host and pathogen

- Inoculum size
- Location (tropism), pathogen must make contact with appropriate host tissue (ex. Rhinovirus
infects upper respiratory tract)
- Health of host
o Compromised immunity
o Nutrition
o Pregnancy
o Age
- Virulence of the pathogens
o Intensity/degree of pathogenicity
Virulence determined by
- Infectivity: the comparative ease with which organisms are transmitted to other hosts
- Invasiveness: ability to enter host or host cells and spread
- Adhesiveness: ability of microbe to adhere to cells
- Toxigenecitity: ablity to produce toxins which damage host or impair host function
Relative virulence
- Detect between 2 microbes
- Look at % morbidity
- May need an in vivo model
Steps for pathogen to cause infectious disease

Maintain a reservoir (site or natural environmental location in which pathogen normally resides)
- Bacterial load must be maintained
- Human pathogens, human or other animals comoon reservoirs
Be able to transported to and enter a suitable host through a suitable route
- Ex. Oral, sexual, scrath, inhalation
Adhere to, colonize, invade host cells/tissues
- Attachment/entry
Initially evade host defenses
- Capsule
- Reproduce inside hose cells to evade immune system
- Change surface antigens
Multiply and complete life cycle
Damage host
- Mechanically or chemically
- Especially in production of
o Endotoxins (LPS)
o Exotoxins
- Travel from site of initial infection to other body tissues or trget cells where they exert their
effects
Leave host and return to reservoir or to a new host
Carrier: infected individual who is a potential source of infection for others

Vehicle: inanimate material that can transmit pathogens
Ex. Surgical equipment, eating utensils
Vector: living organism that transfers infctive agent between hosts
Ex. Ticks, mosquitoes
Zoonoses: infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans (animals can be
reservoirs
Ex. Anthrax, Tuberculosis, Hanta virus

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Lecture 16

Symbiosis: close association of two or more dissimilar organisms

Commensalism: ‘eating at the same table’

- Human adult eliminates 10^13 microorganisms a day

- Are animals without commensals viable  yes, gnotobiotic animals

Mutualism: symbionic relationship in which there is a metabolic interdependence of symbionts (both

To test metabolic interdependence between Reticulitermes and associated protist

Parasitism: one symbiont grows at expense of host and host is harmed

To a microbiologist, parasite = protozoans (plasmodium  malaria) or worms (tapeworms)

Factors that affect the outcome between host and pathogen

Steps for pathogen to cause infectious disease

Carrier: infected individual who is a potential source of infection for others

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