Everyone, even the most ardent of “germophobes,” have hundreds of bacteria teaming on their bodies—eating products of the body and other microbes. But according to the Bellybutton Biodiversity research team of the biology department, this is not bad or gross, but actually normal and healthy.
“It has taken some time for a lot of people to actually understand how vast of an environment our bodies are for bacteria,” Jiri Hulcr, postdoctoral researcher in biology, said. “I was even surprised at first.”
Stemming from previous research on the biodiversity of bacteria that grows on insects and an idea to do biology-education community outreach, the bellybutton project started in January and has grown in popularity.
“A lot of people take interest in their bellybuttons—they have a really funny, timid relationship with it,” Hulcr said. “So what we do is take samples of their bellybuttons with q-tips, then we put that in a biological buffer, spread that buffer on media dish and then let the bacteria culture.”
The researchers have tested over 1,500 people and of the first 95 have sequenced the DNA of the cultured bacteria.
“We have found 1,400 unique strains of bacteria in this sequencing,” Hulcr said. “I was taken aback at first. But it makes sense. We have a lot of skin. We ooze a lot of things that bacteria feast on.”
And it’s good for us. Hulcr said if not, we would be overrun with our own skin secretions.
“These bacteria clean up all the stuff we produce on our skin,” Hulcr said. “Also, they keep each other in check. A diverse community of bacteria makes us safer and less prone to infection.”
The skin is an ecosystem, and like the macro-biomes we are familiar with, diversity ensures balance.
“If one bacteria dominates, then the immune system is prone to infection and the likelihood of a bad bacteria taking over is increased,” Hulcr said. “If you do something to your immune system, then you get the weedy kinds to grow, causing infection. You can also get yeasts growing on your skin—which is not pleasant.”
More bacteria is actually better than very little, Hulcr said. However, not all bacteria is benign.
“Are some of these bacteria pathogens? Absolutely. The reason why they are not eating us alive is due to this diversity,” Hulcr said.
Nina Rountree, recent graduate in biological sciences and biochemistry, said the biodiversity issue is comparable to hunting season.
“You don’t want to kill off all the deer in a forest,” Rountree said. “You wouldn’t want to do the same with bacteria on your body. It’s all about symbiosis.”
Hulcr and Rountree said the purpose of their research is not to only document and study the bacteria growing on the human body, but also to educate the importance of bacteria to human health.
“We have a very bad image of bacteria,” Rountree said. “Gross—germs. Sure, bacteria is not a desirable thing, but we shouldn’t go on a bacteria tirade.”
This brings up a point Rob Dunn, assistant professor in biology, wrote about in Scientific American, a natural sciences magazine. Dunn is also involved in the Bellybutton Biodiversity project.
According to Dunn’s research, antibiotic wipes and hand sanitizer gels are harmful to bacterial biodiversity.
“The really intriguing news—a kind of breakthrough—is that the main compounds in antibiotic wipes, creams and soaps, triclosan and or the chemically similar triclocarban, have also been sprinkled around our lives more generally,” Dunn wrote.
His article in Scientific American cites the danger of the overuse of antibacterial attitudes.
Rountree pointed out two types of bacteria—natives and tourists. The natives, according to Rountree, are harmless. The tourists, however, can be troublesome.
“What is desirable is…to kill the tourists who have just turned up but not yet established, or at least the dangerous among those newly arrived species,” Dunn wrote. “Kill the tourists is a reasonable hand washing motto.”
Kill the tourists but keep the natives—that is possible through hand washing, but wiping out bacteria colonies with antibiotics can cause an imbalance, according to Dunn.
Bacteria multiple very quickly and with that comes frequent gene mutation, Hulcr said. The bacteria that live through the antibiotic holocaust survive to reproduce, “and they become resistant to us.”
Instead of dousing oneself with antibacterial soaps and using antibiotic products, Hulcr said to stay clean but not to over worry.
“We’ve been living with these microbes for the thousands of years we’ve been around,” Hulcr said. “We’ve survived and we are doing well with them. We do need them, so we shouldn’t eradicate them all.”