Abstract

BackgroundA vaginal microbiota dominated by lactobacilli (particularly Lactobacillus crispatus) is associated with vaginal health, whereas a vaginal microbiota not dominated by lactobacilli is considered dysbiotic. Here we investigated whether L. crispatus strains isolated from the vaginal tract of women with Lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiota (LVM) are pheno- or genotypically distinct from L. crispatus strains isolated from vaginal samples with dysbiotic vaginal microbiota (DVM).ResultsWe studied 33 L. crispatus strains (n = 16 from LVM; n = 17 from DVM). Comparison of these two groups of strains showed that, although strain differences existed, both groups degraded various carbohydrates, produced similar amounts of organic acids, inhibited Neisseria gonorrhoeae growth, and did not produce biofilms. Comparative genomics analyses of 28 strains (n = 12 LVM; n = 16 DVM) revealed a novel, 3-fragmented glycosyltransferase gene that was more prevalent among strains isolated from DVM. Most L. crispatus strains showed growth on glycogen-supplemented growth media. Strains that showed less-efficient (n = 6) or no (n = 1) growth on glycogen all carried N-terminal deletions (respectively, 29 and 37 amino acid deletions) in a putative pullulanase type I protein.DiscussionL. crispatus strains isolated from LVM were not phenotypically distinct from L. crispatus strains isolated from DVM; however, the finding that the latter were more likely to carry a 3-fragmented glycosyltransferase gene may indicate a role for cell surface glycoconjugates, which may shape vaginal microbiota-host interactions. Furthermore, the observation that variation in the pullulanase type I gene is associated with growth on glycogen discourages previous claims that L. crispatus cannot directly utilize glycogen.

Highlights

  • The vaginal mucosa hosts a community of commensal, symbiotic, and sometimes pathogenic micro-organisms

  • 33 L. crispatus strains were isolated from these samples (n = from Lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiota (LVM) samples; n = L. crispatus strains from dysbiotic vaginal microbiota (DVM) samples)

  • Four contigs (n = 3 strains from LVM; n = 1 strain from DVM) were discarded as they had less than 50% coverage with other assemblies or with the reference genome (125-2-CHN), suggesting that these isolates belonged to a different Lactobacillus species

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Summary

Introduction

The vaginal mucosa hosts a community of commensal, symbiotic, and sometimes pathogenic micro-organisms. The genomes of nine human L. crispatus isolates have previously been studied, in the context of vaginal dysbiosis [9, 10] Comparative genomics of these strains showed that about 60% of orthologous groups (genes derived from the same ancestral gene) were conserved among all strains, i.e., comprising a “core” genome [10]. It is unclear whether traits pertaining to in vivo dominance are shared by all strains (core genome) or only by a subset of strains (accessory genome). Both women with and without vaginal dysbiosis can be colonized with L. crispatus (see, e.g., [11]), and we do not yet fully understand why in some women L. crispatus dominates and in others it does not. We investigated whether L. crispatus strains isolated from the vaginal tract of women with Lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiota (LVM) are pheno- or genotypically distinct from L. crispatus strains isolated from vaginal samples with dysbiotic vaginal microbiota (DVM)

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