Defining Vaginal Community Dynamics: daily microbiome transitions, the role of menstruation, bacteriophages, and bacterial genes

• DOI: 10.1186/s40168-024-01870-5
• Publication Date: 2024-08-19T06:39:12Z
• Authors: Luisa W. Hugerth; Maria Christine Krog; Kilian Vomstein; Juan Du; Zahra Bashir; Vilde Kaldhusdal; Emma Fransson; Lars Engstrand; Henriette Svarre ...; Ina Schuppe-Koist...
• Keywords: Medical microbiology; Menstruation; Pyrosequencing; Bacteriology

The composition of the vaginal microbiota during menstrual cycle is dynamic, with some women remaining eu- or dysbiotic and others transitioning between these states. What defines dynamics, whether differences are microbiome-intrinsic mostly driven by host unknown. To address this, we characterized 49 healthy, young metagenomic sequencing daily swabs a cycle. We classified dynamics microbiome assessed impact behavior as well at species, strain, gene, phage levels.