mgCSTS
Metagenomic Community State Types of the Vaginal Microbiome
A Lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiome provides the first line of defense against adverse genital tract health outcomes. However, there is limited understanding of the mechanisms by which the vaginal microbiome modulates protection, as prior work mostly described its composition through morphologic assessment and marker gene sequencing methods that do not capture functional information. To address this gap, we developed metagenomic community state types (mgCSTs) which use metagenomic sequences to describe and define vaginal microbiomes based on both composition and functional potential.
Lactobacillus iners and Genital Health: Molecular Clues to an Enigmatic Vaginal Species
Holm, J. B., Carter, K. A., Ravel, J., & Brotman, R. M. (2023). Current infectious disease reports, 25(4), 67–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-023-00798-5
“Maintaining multiple strains with high genetic variation in a microbiome could support [Lactobacillus] iners’ survival in the dynamic vaginal environment: while a portion of L. iners strains could be better adapted to co-exist with L. crispatus, others may be better equipped to compete against anaerobes in a BV-like state with higher pH. Similarly, some L. iners strains could predominate the microbiome largely alone”
“The cMAG was obtained from a metagenome sequenced with long-read technology on a PacBio Sequel II instrument while [six] others were derived from metagenomes sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq platform. The cMAG is 1.649 Mb in size and encodes 1,578 genes. We propose to rename BVAB1 to “Candidatus Lachnocurva vaginae” based on phylogenetic analyses, and provide genomic and metabolomic evidence that this candidate species may metabolize D-lactate, produce trimethylamine (one of the chemicals responsible for [bacterial vaginosis]-associated [fishy] odor), and be motile.”
