Tools for Citizen-Science Recruitment and Student Engagement in Your Research and in Your Classroom.

The field of citizen science is exploding and offers not only a great way to engage the general public in science literacy through primary research, but also an avenue for teaching professionals to engage their students in meaningful community research experiences. Though this field is expanding, there are many hurdles for researchers and participants, as well as challenges for teaching professionals who want to engage their students. Here we highlight one of our projects that engaged many citizens in Raleigh, NC, and across the world, and we use this as a case study to highlight ways to engage citizens in all kinds of research. Through the use of numerous tools to engage the public, we gathered citizen scientists to study skin microbes and their associated odors, and we offer valuable ideas for teachers to tap into resources for their own students and potential citizen-science projects.

Diversity and evolution of the primate skin microbiome.

Skin microbes play a role in human body odour, health and disease. Compared with gut microbes, we know little about the changes in the composition of skin microbes in response to evolutionary changes in hosts, or more recent behavioural and cultural changes in humans. No studies have used sequence-based approaches to consider the skin microbe communities of gorillas and chimpanzees, for example. Comparison of the microbial associates of non-human primates with those of humans offers unique insights into both the ancient and modern features of our skin-associated microbes. Here we describe the microbes found on the skin of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, rhesus macaques and baboons. We focus on the bacterial and archaeal residents in the axilla using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. We find that human skin microbial communities are unique relative to those of other primates, in terms of both their diversity and their composition. These differences appear to reflect both ancient shifts during millions of years of primate evolution and more recent changes due to modern hygiene.

Correction to 'Diversity and evolution of the primate skin microbiome'.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.2586.].

UVA-induced cell cycle progression is mediated by a disintegrin and metalloprotease/epidermal growth factor receptor/AKT/Cyclin D1 pathways in keratinocytes.

UVA (315-400 nm), which constitutes approximately 95% of the UV irradiation in natural sunlight, represents a major environmental challenge to the skin and is clearly associated with human skin cancer. Here, we show that a low, nonlethal dose of UVA induces dose-dependent cell cycle progression in human HaCaT keratinocytes. We found that UVA induced cyclin D1 accumulation, whereas siRNA knockdown of cyclin D1 blocked the UVA-induced cell cycle progression, indicating that this process is mediated by cyclin D1. UVA irradiation also induced AKT activation; when cells were incubated with phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase/AKT inhibitor or infected with dominant-negative AKT, cyclin D1 up-regulation, cell cycle progression, and proliferation were inhibited, suggesting that AKT activation is required for UVA-induced cell cycle progression. In contrast, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) was not activated by UVA exposure; incubation with ERK/mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor had no effect on UVA-induced cyclin D1 up-regulation and cell cycle progression. Activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was observed after UVA exposure. EGFR kinase inhibitor AG attenuated the UVA-induced AKT/cyclin D1 pathway and cell cycle progression, indicating that EGFR is upstream of AKT/cyclin D1 pathway activation. Furthermore, metalloprotease inhibitor GM6001 blocked UVA-induced cell cycle progression, and siRNA knockdown of a disintegrin and metalloprotease (ADAM)17 had a similar inhibitory effect, demonstrating that ADAM17 mediates the EGFR/AKT/cyclin D1 pathway and cell cycle progression to the S phase induced by UVA radiation. Identification of these signaling pathways in UVA-induced cell proliferation will facilitate the development of efficient and safe chemopreventive and therapeutic strategies for skin cancer.

Spatial distribution of protein damage by singlet oxygen in keratinocytes.

Singlet oxygen may be generated in cells by either endogenous or exogenous photosensitizers as a result of exposure to UV or visible irradiation. We have used immuno-spin trapping (Free Radic. Biol. Med. 36: 1214, 2004) to identify the subcellular targets of singlet oxygen generated by rose bengal (RB). Confocal fluorescence microscopy of HaCaT keratinocytes incubated with RB clearly showed that the dye entered the cells and was located mainly in the perinuclear region, probably associated with the Golgi apparatus and endoplasmic reticulum. Previous studies by Wright et al. (Free Radic. Biol. Med.34: 637, 2003) have shown that long-lived protein hydroperoxides (POOH) are present in cells exposed to singlet oxygen-generating dyes. The addition of reducing metal ions such as Cu+ to POOH results in the generation of protein-derived radicals, POO(*) and PO(*), which react with the spin trap 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline N-oxide (DMPO) to give relatively stable spin adducts. In order to determine the subcellular localization of the protein-DMPO adducts, we exposed keratinocytes to RB/light exposure and then incubated the cells with Cu+ and DMPO. After staining with antibody against DMPO followed by a secondary Alexa Fluor 488 goat anti-rabbit IgG, the intracellular distribution of protein-DMPO adducts was determined by confocal microscopy. The subcellular localization of the protein DMPO adducts was coincident with that of RB. This approach may provide information on the spatial distribution of singlet oxygen generated in cells.