Microbes on the human vaginal epithelium
- Richard W. Hyman*,†,‡,
- Marilyn Fukushima*,†,
- Lisa Diamond*,†,
- Jochen Kumm*,†,
- Linda C. Giudice§, and
- Ronald W. Davis*,†,¶
- *Stanford Genome Technology Center and Departments of †Biochemistry, ¶Genetics, and §Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stanford University, 855 California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304
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Contributed by Ronald W. Davis, April 20, 2005
Abstract
Using solely a gene-based procedure, PCR amplification of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene coupled with very deep sequencing of the amplified products, the microbes on 20 human vaginal epithelia of healthy women have been identified and quantitated. The Lactobacillus content on these 20 healthy vaginal epithelia was highly variable, ranging from 0% to 100%. For four subjects, Lactobacillus was (virtually) the only bacterium detected. However, that Lactobacillus was far from clonal and was a mixture of species and strains. Eight subjects presented complex mixtures of Lactobacillus and other microbes. The remaining eight subjects had no Lactobacillus. Instead, Bifidobacterium, Gardnerella, Prevotella, Pseudomonas, or Streptococcus predominated.
Footnotes
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↵ ‡ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rhyman{at}stanford.edu.
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Abbreviation: rDNA, ribosomal DNA.
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Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database (accession nos. AY958774–AY959212).
- Copyright © 2005, The National Academy of Sciences
