Fish skin contains a mucosal microbiome for the largest and oldest group of vertebrates, a location ideal for microbial community ecology and practical applications in agriculture and veterinary medicine. These selective microbiomes are dominated by Proteobacteria, with compositions different from the surrounding water. Core taxa are a small percentage of those present and are currently functionally uncharacterized. Methods for skin sampling, DNA extraction and amplification, and sequence data processing are highly varied across the field, and reanalysis of recent studies using a consistent pipeline revealed that some conclusions did change in statistical significance. Further, the 16S gene sequencing approaches lack quantitation of microbes and copy number adjustment. Thus, consistency in the field is a serious limitation in comparing across studies. The most significant area for future study, requiring metagenomic and metabolomics data, is the biochemical pathways and functions within the microbiome community, the interactions between members, and the resulting effects on fish host health being linked to specific nutrients and microbial species. Genes linked to skin colonization, such as those for attachment or mucin degradation, need to be uncovered and explored. Skin immunity factors need to be directly linked to microbiome composition and individual taxa. The basic foundation has been laid, and many exciting future discoveries remain.

鱼皮包含最大和最古老的脊椎动物群的粘膜微生物组，是微生物群落生态学和农业和兽医学实际应用的理想场所。这些选择性微生物组由变形菌主导，与周围水的成分不同。核心分类群是目前存在的一小部分，目前在功能上没有特征。皮肤取样、DNA 提取和扩增以及序列数据处理的方法在整个领域都有很大差异，使用一致的管道对最近的研究进行重新分析显示，一些结论在统计显着性方面确实发生了变化。此外，16S 基因测序方法缺乏微生物定量和拷贝数调整。因此，该领域的一致性是跨研究比较的严重限制。需要宏基因组学和代谢组学数据的未来研究最重要的领域是微生物群落内的生化途径和功能、成员之间的相互作用、以及由此产生的对鱼类宿主健康的影响与特定的营养物质和微生物种类有关。需要发现和探索与皮肤定植相关的基因，例如附着或粘蛋白降解的基因。皮肤免疫因素需要与微生物组组成和个体分类群直接相关。基础已经奠定，许多令人兴奋的未来发现仍然存在。