There is growing evidence indicating that the microbial communities that dwell on the human ocular surface are crucially important for ocular surface health and disease. Little is known about interspecies interactions, functional profiles, and strain heterogeneity across individuals in healthy ocular surface microbiomes. To comprehensively characterize the strain heterogeneity, cooccurrence network, taxonomic composition and functional profile of the healthy ocular surface microbiome, we performed shotgun metagenomics sequencing on ocular surface mucosal membrane swabs of 17 healthy volunteers. The healthy ocular surface microbiome was classified into 12 phyla, 70 genera, and 140 species. The number of species in each healthy ocular surface microbiome ranged from 6 to 47, indicating differences in microbial diversity among individuals. The species with high relative abundances and high positivity rates were Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Propionibacterium acnes, Corynebacterium accolens, and Enhydrobacter aerosaccus. A correlation network analysis revealed a competitive interaction of Staphylococcus epidermidis with Streptococcus pyogenes in ocular surface microbial ecosystems. Staphylococcus epidermidis and Streptococcus pyogenes revealed phylogenetic diversity among different individuals. At the functional level, the pathways related to transcription were the most abundant. We also found that there were abundant lipid and amino acid metabolism pathways in the healthy ocular surface microbiome. This study explored the strain heterogeneity, cooccurrence network, taxonomic composition, and functional profile of the healthy ocular surface microbiome. These findings have important significance for the future development of probiotic-based eye therapeutic drugs.

中文翻译：

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健康眼表微生物组的菌株异质性，共现网络，分类学组成和功能特征

越来越多的证据表明，驻留在人眼表面的微生物群落对于眼表健康和疾病至关重要。关于健康眼表微生物群中个体之间的种间相互作用，功能概况和菌株异质性知之甚少。为了全面表征健康眼表微生物组的菌株异质性，共现网络，分类学组成和功能特征，我们对17名健康志愿者的眼表粘膜拭子进行了shot弹枪宏基因组测序。健康的眼表微生物组分为12种，70属和140种。每个健康的眼表微生物组中的菌种数量在6到47之间，表明个体之间的微生物多样性存在差异。相对丰度高和阳性率高的种是化脓性链球菌，表皮葡萄球菌，痤疮丙酸杆菌，accyneens accolens和Aerosaccusus。相关网络分析表明，在表层微生物生态系统中，表皮葡萄球菌与化脓性链球菌之间存在竞争性相互作用。表皮葡萄球菌和化脓性链球菌显示出不同个体之间的系统发育多样性。在功能水平上，与转录相关的途径最为丰富。我们还发现，健康的眼表微生物组中存在丰富的脂质和氨基酸代谢途径。这项研究探讨了健康眼表微生物组的菌株异质性，共现网络，分类学组成和功能特征。