You have accessJournal of UrologyUrodynamics/Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction/Female Pelvic Medicine: Basic Research & Pathophysiology I1 Apr 2018PD19-01 EVALUATION OF THE VAGINAL MYCOBIOME IN ASYMPTOMATIC PRE-MENOPAUSAL WOMEN Victoria Scott, Jie Tang, Tiina Drell, Jaak Simm, Andres Salumets, Madis Metsis, David M. Underhill, and A. Lenore Ackerman Victoria ScottVictoria Scott More articles by this author , Jie TangJie Tang More articles by this author , Tiina DrellTiina Drell More articles by this author , Jaak SimmJaak Simm More articles by this author , Andres SalumetsAndres Salumets More articles by this author , Madis MetsisMadis Metsis More articles by this author , David M. UnderhillDavid M. Underhill More articles by this author , and A. Lenore AckermanA. Lenore Ackerman More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2018.02.991AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES While the bacterial composition of the vaginal microbiome has been well studied, much less is known about the composition and complexity of the fungal community (“mycobiome”). Investigating the vaginal mycobiome and how it changes in concert with the host environment will be essential in determining why fungal species, such as Candida, can be pathogenic for some hosts and a seemingly inert colonizer in others. To address this question, we sought to evaluate the fungal mycobiome of asymptomatic reproductive-age women. METHODS The operational taxonomic unit library used for analysis was obtained from a dataset examining asymptomatic, reproductive-age Estonian women obtained by amplification of the fungal internal transcribed spacer-1 (ITS-1) region from DNA isolated from vaginal swab specimens. Using a custom, manually curated fungal database focused on mammalian-associated genera (THFv1.5), we were able to increase the number of annotated sequences from 62% (using the UNITE database) to 86%. K-means clustering was performed using MatLab. RESULTS The fungal communities present in vaginal samples from 251 asymptomatic women aged 15-44 were predominantly of low fungal diversity, with a median Shannon diversity index of 0.61 ± 0.52. Using k-means clustering analysis, we identified 3 major community patterns: Candida-predominant, Wallemia-predominant and a third mixed community containing a Pichia-predominant subset. These patterns did not correlate with exogenous hormonal medication use. CONCLUSIONS This is the first large dataset of vaginal specimens analyzed to define the composition of vaginal mycobiome in asymptomatic, reproductive-age women. While we reconfirmed Candida as the most common predominant species present in the vagina, this reanalysis identifies a large minority of subjects with the halophilic fungus, Wallemia. The dramatically different growth requirements of these two genera suggests that the fungal mycobiome may reflect fundamentally different microenvironments within the vagina of these subject subsets, despite both being asymptomatic. Future studies will aim to examine whether these differences impact the risks for other genitourinary tract pathology. © 2018FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 199Issue 4SApril 2018Page: e394-e395 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2018MetricsAuthor Information Victoria Scott More articles by this author Jie Tang More articles by this author Tiina Drell More articles by this author Jaak Simm More articles by this author Andres Salumets More articles by this author Madis Metsis More articles by this author David M. Underhill More articles by this author A. Lenore Ackerman More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement Advertisement PDF downloadLoading ...