Androgens at the skin surface regulate pathogenesis through the activation of quorum sensing.

Unlabelled: the most frequent cause of skin infections, is more common in men than women and selectively colonizes the skin during inflammation. Yet, the specific cues that drive infection in these settings remain unclear. Here we show that the host androgens testosterone and dihydrotestosterone promote pathogenesis and skin infection. Without the secretion of these hormones, skin infection is limited. Testosterone activates virulence in a concentration dependent manner through stimulation of the quorum sensing system, with the capacity to circumvent other inhibitory signals in the environment. Taken together, our work defines a previously uncharacterized inter-kingdom signal between the skin and the opportunistic pathogen and identifies the mechanism of sex-dependent differences in skin infection.

One-sentence Summary: Testosterone promotes pathogenesis through activation of the quorum sensing system.