Fig. 1

Culture protocol modifications allow isolation of Gram-negative skin microbiota. a Thirteen participants underwent standard clinical skin bacteria isolation using swabs plated onto blood, mannitol salt, BHI, chocolate, and MacConkey agar incubated at 37 °C. b The same participants underwent modified bacterial isolation as described. The relative abundance of cultured bacterial isolates from each participant is shown on the vertical axis. All bacteria were identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analysis, except Staphylococcus species were identified by characteristic growth on mannitol salt agar plates with positives confirmed by coagulase testing. For participants that were re-sampled, no discrepancies between initial and subsequent isolations were found