A discussion today on Twitter led me to investigate researchers on a very specific part of the human microbiome: The Beard. Having no opportunity to grow one myself, I was curious to see how much is already known about this habitat. As it turns out, not a lot. Here are some articles I found on this topic, including the ones that came out today. They are mainly popular science articles, but not a lot of peer-reviewed papers, unfortunately.

Update, May 2015

New shocking science was published the first weekend of May. Well, it was not science, and it was not published in a scientific journal. But shocking indeed.

A real microbiologist puts the dirty-beard theory to the test. He swabs several beards, inoculates petridishes….. and finds bacteria. OMG. The reporter is so shocked, she slaps her gloved hands (which probably just touched a beard or a petridish) to her face.

Some beards as dirty as toilets–  Microbiologist tests beards for germs (and is surprised when he finds them?!) – Royale Da – KOAT

This unintentionally funny video led to a whole new set of popular science articles. A selection:

Bearded men have poop on their faces – Michael Morrow – New York Post

Microbiologist John Golobic, of Quest Diagnostics, swabbed a number of beards searching for bacteria for the study and found that some of the bacteria “are the kind of things that you find in feces.” .. “Try to keep your hands away from your face, as much as possible,” Golobic added.

Poo in Beard: Study shows beards full of bacteria. How to wash my beard and avoid a face of faeces – MK Web

“Bad news ladies, you encouraged your man to grow it, watched it slowly bloom and marvelled as the boyish youth of your BF turned brutish male.”

Hey Guys, Toilet Bacteria Is Probably Lurking In Your Beards – Amy Capetta – Yahoo

“Some men believe that freedom from shaving is freedom from hygiene and maintenance yet nothing could be further from the truth, both for health and aesthetic reasons.”

So It Turns Out Men’s Beards Are Covered In Poop – Julie Gerstein – BuzzFeed

Albuquerque’s ABC affiliate swabbed and tested several men’s beards and found that while some beards contained normal bacteria, others’ beards contained bacteria similar to those found in fecal matter.

Your Beard Is Covered In Shit: According To New Study Beards Are Crawling In Poop Particles – Cass Anderson – BroBible

At some point every bro will need to make this decision: beard or poop face. ..There’s dung on your chin, there’s crap on your cheeks, there’s shit on your lip. Why haven’t you shaved yet?!?

Even The Atlantic is participating in the craze. How Filthy Is Your Beard? – Olga Khazan – The Atlantic

“There is more crap in these stories about poo in beards than there is in beards.”

Luckily, Rachel Feltman provides a scientific perspective: No, your beard isn’t full of poop (probably) – Rachel Feltman – The Washington Post

I have bad news for y’all: You’re covered in poo bacteria. COVERED. .. It’s okay. It’s really fine. Embrace the poo bacteria, it is a part of you because you are a multitude of microorganisms, each more special than the last.

David Coil also wrote a piece on Slate to debunk the story: Your Beard Is Covered in Bacteria: So is everything else. Don’t fall for the latest viral freak-out – David Coil – Slate

“We found germs on X” is pointless unless you’re talking about Mars, the moon, or something sterilized.

But I am afraid that the popsci articles on “dirty beards” will be around for a while. The general audience seems to love stories like this. Science stories, not so much.

The real science

Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men – Manuel S. Barbeito – Applied Microbiology 1967 (HT: James Meadow  ‏@JamesMeadow)

This is a must-read paper with very instructive images featuring men taking showers and baby chickens (peeps?).

The effect of facial hair and sex on the dispersal of bacteria below a masked subject – H. A. McLure – Anaesthesia – 2000

We investigated the effect of mask wiggling in 10 bearded and 10 clean-shaven male subjects, and 10 female subjects. Wiggling the mask significantly increased the degree of bacterial shedding onto agar plates 15 cm below the lips in bearded males (p = 0.03) and females (p = 0.03), but not in clean-shaven males. At rest without mask wiggling the bearded subjects shed significantly more bacteria than clean-shaven males (p = 0.01) or females (p = 0.001). To reduce the risks of contamination of the sterile field when face masks are worn females and bearded males should avoid wiggling the face mask. Bearded males may also consider removing their beards.

Bacterial ecology of hospital workers’ facial hair: a cross-sectional study – E. Wakeam – Journal of Hospital Infection – 2014

Workers with facial hair were less likely to be colonized with Staphylococcus aureus (41.2% vs 52.6%, P ¼ 0.02) and meticillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (2.0% vs 7.0%, P ¼ 0.01). Colonization rates with Gram-negative organisms were low for all healthcare workers, and Gram-negative colonization rates did not differ
by facial hair type.

News articles, March 2015

Beards Are Unhygienic As They Carry Bacteria And Spread Infection Claims Trichologist – Inquisitr

Are hipster beards unhygienic? Facial hair is riddled with bacteria which may spread germs and trigger infections, experts claim – Madlen Davies – Daily Mail

Experts say beards breed disease – Stephen Morgan – Digital Journal

Your Beard is a Disgusting Bacteria Breeding Ground – Jake Woolf – GQ

Older popular press articles

Better Beer Through Beards – Yeast Genome

Beard Yeast Beer – Christina Agapakis – Scientific American

Beard Beer – Rogue.com, with 6 ingredients: Munich, C15 and pilsner malts; Sterling hops; free-range coastal water; Beard Yeast (HT: Matthew Barber, @bioBarber)

The Beard-ome project by Hydrocalypse Industries (YouTube video)

The microbiome and the future of artisanal gastronomy – Jason Tetro – PopSci

Featuring UC Davis based feminist Jonathan Ricin: Researcher reveals microbiome involved in everything; wishes everyone would shut up about it – The Science Web

If this is all there is, I am calling out to all microbiome researchers with some free time and some money to spare (ha!) to fill this gap in our knowledge. A comparison of all the hairy surfaces of our bodies would be best, but I will take a small beard microbiome student project too!

I’d be more than happy to add more hairy papers, in case I missed one.

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Human microbiome, general

Abstract: Targeted Genomic Characterization, Uncultured Bacteria from Human Microbiota, Project – Mircea Podar – Environmental Metagenomics

Review: The Emerging Role of Metagenomics in the Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases – Jun Li and Qiang Feng – SOJ Microbiology & Infectious Diseases

Review: Chapter 4 – Applications of Next-Generation Sequencing Technologies to the Study of the Human Microbiome – Philip Chuang – Comprehensive Analytical Chemistry

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

In vitro impact of human milk oligosaccharides on Enterobacteriaceae growth – Jennifer L Hoeflinger – Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Human oral microbiome

Review: Distribution of Genes Related to Antimicrobial Resistance in Different Oral Environments: A Systematic Review – Ludmila Coutinho Moraes

Human gastric and gut microbiome

Variations of gastric corpus microbiota are associated with early esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and squamous dysplasia – Dariush Nasrollahzadeh – Scientific Reports

Review: Autism and Our Intestinal Microbiota – Reddy B.L. and Saier M.H – Journal of Molecular Microbial Biotechnology

Human reproductive organ microbiome

The association of uterine cervical microbiota with an increased risk for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in Korea – Hea Young Oh – Clinical Microbiology and Infection

Animal models of microbiome research

Helicobacter pylori infection can affect energy modulating hormones and body weight in germ free mice – Yalda Khosravi – Scientific Reports

Using Corticosteroids to Reshape the Gut Microbiome: Implications for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases – Huang, Edmond Y. – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Animal microbiome

Characterization of intestinal bacterial communities of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes), and a forest elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis) living in Moukalaba-Doudou National Park in Gabon – Sayaka Tsuchida – Tropics

Editorial: Phylogeny: Are arthropods at the heart of virus evolution? – Gytis Dudas, Darren J Obbard – eLIFE

Unprecedented genomic diversity of RNA viruses in arthropods reveals the ancestry of negative-sense RNA viruses – Ci-Xiu Li – eLIFE

Review: Marsupial oral cavity microbiome – Philip S Bird – Microbiology Australia

Review: The marine mammal microbiome: current knowledge and future directions – Tiffanie M Nelson – Microbiology Australia

Review: Mammalian microbiomes – Linda L Blackall – Microbiology Australia

Plant microbiome

Analysis of the Peltigera membranacea metagenome indicates that lichen-associated bacteria are involved in phosphate solubilization – Margrét Auður Sigurbjörnsdóttir – Microbiology

The response of root-associated bacterial community to the grafting of watermelon –
Ning Ling – Plant and Soil

Soil and sediment microbiome

Call for papers: BIODESERT: Exploring and Exploiting the Microbial Resource of Hot and Cold Deserts – BioMed Research International

Metagenome of a Microbial Community Inhabiting a Metal-Rich Tropical Stream Sediment – Patrícia S. Costa – PLOS ONE

Establishing microbial diversity and functions in weathered and neutral Cu–Pb–Zn tailings with native soil addition – Xiaofang Li – Geoderma

A novel sub-phylum method discriminates better the impact of crop management on soil microbial community – Florine Degrune – Agronomy for Sustainable Development

Grazing intensity in subarctic tundra affects the temperature adaptation of soil microbial communities – Sari Stark – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Phytoremediation Using Microbial Communities: I – Mohammad Miransari – Phytoremediation

Effects of soil management practices on soil microbial communities and development of southern blight in vegetable production – Tiehang Wu – Applied Soil Ecology

Soil fungal communities respond compositionally to recurring frequent prescribed burning in a managed southeastern US forest ecosystem – Alena K. Oliver – Forest Ecology and Management

Short-term effects of simulated below-ground carbon dioxide leakage on a soil microbial community – I. Fernández-Montiel – International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
Review: Microbial communities and their primary to early diagenetic mineral phases; the record from Neoproterozoic microbialites of Qarn Alam, Oman – M. Mettraux – Microbial Carbonates in Space and Time: Implications for Global Exploration and Production

Water microbiome

Review: Halophilic microbial communities and their environments – Aharon Oren – Current Opinion in Biotechnology

Bioreactor microbiome

Metagenomic insights into Cr(VI) effect on microbial communities and functional genes of an expanded granular sludge bed reactor treating high-nitrate wastewater – Yu Miao – Water Research

Comparative analysis of metagenomes from three methanogenic hydrocarbon-degrading enrichment cultures with 41 environmental samples – Boonfei Tan – ISME Journal

Microbiome of the built environment

Total Concentrations of Virus and Bacteria in Indoor and Outdoor Air – Aaron J. Prussin – Environmental Science & Technology

Mapping microbial ecosystems and spoilage-gene flow in breweries highlights patterns of contamination and resistance – Nicholas A Bokulich – eLIFE

Metabolomics and transcriptomics

Microbial community transcriptional networks are conserved in three domains at ocean basin scales – Frank O. Aylward – PNAS USA

Review: The use of evolutionary approaches to understand single cell genomes – Haiwei Luo – Frontiers in Microbiology

Book: Encyclopedia of Metagenomics – Genes, Genomes and Metagenomes – Basics, Methods, Databases and Tools – Nelson, Karen E. Some interesting book chapters include:

• MEMOSys: Platform for GenomeScale Metabolic Models – Stephan Pabinger and Zlatko Trajanoski – Genes, Genomes and Metagenomes
• Insights into Environmental Microbial Denitrification from Integrated Metagenomic, Cultivation, and Genomic Analyses – Stefan J. Green
• Fast Program for Clustering and Comparing Large Sets of Protein or Nucleotide Sequences -Weizhong Li
• Use of Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes in Metagenomics Studies, Overview – Lingling Wang
• A 123 of Metagenomics – Torsten Thomas

Viruses and phages

The Importance of Virology at a Time of Great Need and Great Jeopardy – Michael J. Imperiale and Arturo Casadevall – mBio

A metagenomics and case-control study to identify viruses associated with bovine respiratory disease – Terry Fei Fan Ng – Journal of Virology

Techniques

Cautionary tale of using 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values in identification of human-associated bacterial species – Morgane Rossi-Tamisier – International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

A single protocol for extraction of gDNA from bacteria and yeast – Laurie Vingataramin and Eric H. Frost – BioTechniques

Microbes in the news

Are you overweight? The clue’s in your poo – Robert Pickup – The Conversation

New research finds queen bee microbiomes are starkly distinct from worker bees – Indiana University Bloomington

Queen Bee Microbiomes Are not Like Those of Worker Bees – Entomology Today

Launch of the AMI Microbiome Podcast – American Microbiome Insitute

Dog bacteria might benefit human health – Kalli Ricka Wolf – Tucson Sentinel

A Short History of the Discovery of Viruses – MicrobiologyBytes

How Bacteria Work – Marianne Spoon – How Stuff Works

Resistance: The Film, a documentary on antibiotic resistance.

Science and art

Science and Culture: High concept art and experiments – Calla Cofield – PNAS USA

Science, publishing, and career

The postdoc series: What is a postdoc? – Julie Gould – Nature

Mistake index as a surrogate of quality in scientific manuscripts – Antoni Margalida and M. Àngels Colomer – PNAS USA

A Second Chance for Fraudsters? What’s behind paper retractions? – Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky – Labtimes

Bik’s Picks

Chameleons’ Color-Changing Secret Revealed – Laura Geggel – LiveScience

This plant can feel bugs eating it alive. Can scientists improve its self defense? – Darryl Fears – Washington Post

Picture of the Week: Plastiglomerate – Chau Tu – ScienceFriday

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