Map of skin bacteria

2009/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Mikrobiologia
• Anatomia/Fisiologia

The forearm is the highest diversity of skin bacteria

Neither under the arm, nor in the nostrils, nor on the scalp. The forearm is the skin of our body where more species of bacteria accumulate. To this conclusion, the Maryland National Institute for Human Genome Research has arrived, through the study of the skin of ten volunteers.

Volunteers have taken samples from more than 20 sites in the body and have differentiated bacterial species by studying the ribosomal RNA of the bacteria from these samples.

A total of 1,000 species have been found in the skin and, as has been said, have seen that most of the species is concentrated in the forearm. The youngest, behind the ear. In addition, it has been observed that in the fat parts of the body, such as the forehead, less species of bacteria grow than in the dry ones.