Bacterial landscape of human skin: seeing the forest for the trees.

Skin harbours large communities of colonizing bacteria. The same bacterial species can exist in different physiological states: viable, dormant, non-viable. Each physiological state can have a different impact on skin health and disease. Various analytical methodologies target different physiological states of bacteria, and this must be borne in mind while interpreting microbiological tests and drawing conclusions about possible cause-effect relationships.