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. 2018 Nov 21:6:e5977.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.5977. eCollection 2018.

Characterization of vaginal microbiota in Thai women

Auttawit Sirichoat  1 , Pranom Buppasiri  2 , Chulapan Engchanil  1 , Wises Namwat  1 , Kiatichai Faksri  1 , Nipaporn Sankuntaw  3 , Ekawat Pasomsub  4 , Wasun Chantratita  5 , Viraphong Lulitanond  1
Affiliations

Characterization of vaginal microbiota in Thai women

Auttawit Sirichoat et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Background: The vaginal microbiota (VMB) plays a key role in women's reproductive health. VMB composition varies with ethnicity, making it necessary to characterize the VMB of the target population before interventions to maintain and/or improve the vaginal health are undertaken. Information on the VMB of Thai women is currently unavailable. We therefore characterized the VMB in normal Thai women.

Methods: Vaginal samples derived from 25 Thai women were subjected to 16S rRNA gene next-generation sequencing (NGS) on the Ion Torrent PGM platform.

Results: Two groups of VMB were detected, lactobacilli-dominated (LD) and non-lactobacilli dominated (NLD) groups. Lactobacillus iners was the most common species found in the LD group while Gardnerella vaginalis followed by Atopobium vaginae and Pseudumonas stutzeri were commonly found in the NLD group.

Conclusions: The VMB patterns present in normal Thai women is essential information to further determine the factors associated with VMB patterns in vaginal health and disease and to develop proper management of reproductive health of Thai women.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene next-generation sequencing; Bacterial vaginosis; Gardnerella vaginalis; Lactobacillus; Thailand; Vaginal microbiota.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. The hierarchical clustering tree and the heat map of bacterial taxa from vaginal samples.
The hierarchical clustering of 25 vaginal microbiota was generated based on the bacterial abundances of OTUs (A). The heat map showing the relative abundance of the most abundant OTUs using the color key (B). The red bar and blue bar below the tree indicate the lactobacilli-dominated and non-lactobacilli dominated group, respectively.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Shannon diversity index values in lactobacilli-dominated and non-lactobacilli dominated groups.
The Shannon diversity index values indicating diversity of bacterial taxa in both groups, as shown using Tukey’s boxplots.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Rarefaction curves for observed species (OTUs) (A) and Chao1 (B).
Both were used to estimate detected bacterial richness in lactobacilli-dominated and non-lactobacilli dominated groups.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Principle coordinates analysis (PCoA) plot of Bray–Curtis dissimilarity indices among all samples.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Venn diagram showing numbers of unique and shared OTUs (species) in lactobacilli-dominated and non-lactobacilli dominated groups.
Figure 6
Figure 6. The most abundant bacterial species detected in vaginal samples in the lactobacilli-dominated and non-lactobacilli dominated groups.
Data are shown as mean with SEM. The bacterial species with abundance less than 1% are not shown. These include F. magna, L. kefiranofaciens, L. vaginalis, Peptoniphilus harei, Peptostreptococcus. anaerobius, S. intermedius and U. parvum . * = significant difference.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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