The skin provides many niches in which large populations
of microbes are subjected to variable ecological pressures
including humidity, temperature, pH, and the composition
of antimicrobial peptides and lipids. In addition, skin
structures such as hair follicles and sebaceous, eccrine,
and apocrine glands constitute discrete niches that harbor
unique microbiota [3]. Analyses of the topographical diversity
of microbes that inhabit these niches of the human
skin using 16S rRNA gene phylotyping revealed that the
habitats have large effects on the microbial composition.