Differences in the composition of vaginal microbial communities found in healthy Caucasian and black women
Xia Zhou,Celeste J. Brown,Zaid Abdo,Catherine C. Davis,Melanie A. Hansmann,Paul Joyce,James A. Foster,Larry J. Forney +7 more
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TLDR
It is postulate that because of differences in composition, not all vaginal communities are equally resilient, and that differences in the vaginal microbiota of Caucasian and black women may at least partly account for known disparities in the susceptibility of women in these racial groups to bacterial vaginosis and sexually transmitted diseases.Abstract:
The maintenance of a low pH in the vagina through the microbial production of lactic acid is known to be an important defense against infectious disease in reproductive age women. Previous studies have shown that this is largely accomplished through the metabolism of lactic acid bacteria, primarily species of Lactobacillus. Despite the importance of this defense mechanism to women's health, differences in the species composition of vaginal bacterial communities among women have not been well defined, nor is it known if and how these differences might be linked to differences in the risk of infection. In this study, we defined and compared the species composition of vaginal bacterial communities in 144 Caucasian and black women in North America. This was carried out based on the profiles of terminal restriction fragments of 16S rRNA genes, and phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences of the numerically dominant microbial populations. Among all the women sampled, there were eight major kinds of vaginal communities ('supergroups') that occurred in the general populace at a frequency of at least 0.05 (P=0.99). From the distribution of these supergroups among women, it was possible to draw several conclusions. First, there were striking, statistically significant differences (P=0.0) in the rank abundance of community types among women in these racial groups. Second, the incidence of vaginal communities in which lactobacilli were not dominant was higher in black women (33%) as compared to Caucasian women (7%). Communities not dominated by lactobacilli had Atopobium and a diverse array of phylotypes from the order Clostridiales. Third, communities dominated by roughly equal numbers of more than one species of Lactobacillus were rare in black women, but common in Caucasian women. We postulate that because of these differences in composition, not all vaginal communities are equally resilient, and that differences in the vaginal microbiota of Caucasian and black women may at least partly account for known disparities in the susceptibility of women in these racial groups to bacterial vaginosis and sexually transmitted diseases.read more
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Delivery mode shapes the acquisition and structure of the initial microbiota across multiple body habitats in newborns
Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello,Elizabeth K. Costello,Elizabeth K. Costello,Monica Contreras,Magda Magris,Glida Hidalgo,Noah Fierer,Rob Knight +7 more
TL;DR: It is found that in direct contrast to the highly differentiated communities of their mothers, neonates harbored bacterial communities that were undifferentiated across multiple body habitats, regardless of delivery mode.
Journal ArticleDOI
Vaginal microbiome of reproductive-age women
Jacques Ravel,Pawel Gajer,Zaid Abdo,G. Maria Schneider,Sara S. K. Koenig,Stacey L. McCulle,Shara Karlebach,Reshma Gorle,Jennifer Russell,Carol O. Tacket,Rebecca M. Brotman,Catherine C. Davis,Kevin A. Ault,Ligia Peralta,Larry J. Forney +14 more
TL;DR: The inherent differences within and between women in different ethnic groups strongly argues for a more refined definition of the kinds of bacterial communities normally found in healthy women and the need to appreciate differences between individuals so they can be taken into account in risk assessment and disease diagnosis.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Placenta Harbors a Unique Microbiome
TL;DR: A unique placental microbiome niche was characterized, composed of nonpathogenic commensal microbiota from the Firmicutes, Tenericute, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Fusobacteria phyla, which was consistently different from those reported in other parts of the body, including the skin and urogenital tract.
Journal ArticleDOI
Temporal Dynamics of the Human Vaginal Microbiota
Pawel Gajer,Rebecca M. Brotman,Guoyun Bai,Joyce M. Sakamoto,Ursel M. E. Schütte,Xue Zhong,Sara S. K. Koenig,Li Fu,Zhanshan Sam Ma,Xia Zhou,Zaid Abdo,Larry J. Forney,Jacques Ravel +12 more
TL;DR: The temporal dynamics of the composition of vaginal bacterial communities in 32 reproductive-age women over a 16-week period revealed the dynamics of five major classes of bacterial communities and showed that some communities change markedly over short time periods, whereas others are relatively stable.
Journal ArticleDOI
The influence of sex, handedness, and washing on the diversity of hand surface bacteria
TL;DR: The variation within and between individuals in microbial ecology illustrated by this study emphasizes the challenges inherent in defining what constitutes a “healthy” bacterial community; addressing these challenges will be critical for the International Human Microbiome Project.
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