Abstract
Besides bacteria, fungi, protists and archaea, the vaginal ecosystem also contains a range of prokaryote- and eukaryote-infecting viruses, which are collectively referred to as the “virome”. Despite its well-described role in the gut and other environmental niches, the vaginal virome remains understudied. With a focus on sexual and reproductive health, we summarize the currently known components of the vaginal virome, its relationship with other constituents of the vaginal microbiota and its association with adverse health outcomes. While a range of eukaryote-infecting viruses has been described to be present in the female genital tract (FGT), few prokaryote-infecting viruses have been described. Literature suggests that various vaginal viruses interact with vaginal bacterial microbiota and host immunity and that any imbalance thereof may contribute to the risk of adverse reproductive health outcomes, including infertility and adverse birth outcomes. Current limitations of vaginal virome research include experimental and analytical constraints. Considering the vaginal virome may represent the missing link in our understanding of the relationship between FGT bacteria, mucosal immunity, and adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes, future studies evaluating the vaginal microbiome and its population dynamics holistically will be important for understanding the role of the vaginal virome in balancing health and disease.
Highlights
Despite the considerable literature published on bacterial communities, only a few human microbiota studies have focused on viruses, fungi, protists and archaea communities [1,2,3], yet shifts in one community likely modulate community structure of others and vice versa
Jakobsen et al (2019) found that, while no significant difference in overall viral alpha diversity was present between groups, bacteriophage operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and predicted bacterial host OTUs strongly correlated in women with bacterial vaginosis (BV)
Changes in the vaginal bacterial microbiota have been described as a risk factor for infertility [80,81,82], and it is likely that viruses, such as human herpesviruses (HHV), play a role
Summary
Despite the considerable literature published on bacterial communities, only a few human microbiota studies have focused on viruses, fungi, protists and archaea communities [1,2,3], yet shifts in one community likely modulate community structure of others and vice versa. It is estimated that only about 1% of the human virome has been described at the sequence level [4], and even less has been characterized functionally and hardly any studies have evaluated the virome in relation to reproductive health and the female genital tract (FGT). Little is known about the interactions of prokaryote- and eukaryote-infecting DNA and RNA viruses present in the FGT microbiota, collectively making up the vaginal virome, with other components of the vaginal microbiota or the human host, and its consequent impact on health outcomes. The primary outcome of this review was to summarize our current understanding of the pro- and eukaryote-infecting viruses making up the vaginal virome. OR “female genital tract” OR “female reproductive tract”) AND (“virome” OR “virus” OR “viral” OR “microbiome”) and was limited to studies that were in published in English
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