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Vaginal microbiota of adolescents and their mothers: A preliminary study of vertical transmission and persistence

View ORCID ProfileChristine M. Bassis, Kaylie A. Bullock, Daniel E. Sack, Katie Saund, Ali Pirani, Evan S. Snitkin, Veronica I. Alaniz, Elisabeth H. Quint, Vincent B. Young, Jason D. Bell
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/768598
Christine M. Bassis
1Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine
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  • For correspondence: cbassis@umich.edu
Kaylie A. Bullock
1Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine
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Daniel E. Sack
1Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine
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Katie Saund
2Department of Microbiology and Immunology
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Ali Pirani
2Department of Microbiology and Immunology
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Evan S. Snitkin
1Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine
2Department of Microbiology and Immunology
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Veronica I. Alaniz
3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Elisabeth H. Quint
3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Vincent B. Young
1Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine
2Department of Microbiology and Immunology
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Jason D. Bell
3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Abstract

Background The composition of the human vaginal microbiota is related to many aspects of health from infection susceptibility to preterm birth. Factors that influence human vaginal microbiota composition, including its source, are not well understood.

Objective The goal of this study was to determine if vaginal microbiota transmission from mother to daughter at birth influences the human vaginal microbiota composition in adolescence.

Study Design Weekly vaginal swab samples from 13 adolescents and their mothers were collected for up to 4 weeks. After DNA was isolated from the swabs, the V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA genes were amplified, sequenced and analyzed. We calculated distances between the bacterial communities in different samples to investigate the relationship between the vaginal microbiota of the mother/daughter pairs and the daughter’s birth mode. We also cultivated Lactobacillus crispatus from the mother and daughter of 1 pair. To investigate the possibility of direct transmission and persistence of one member of the vaginal microbiota, we isolated DNA from the L. crispatus isolates and compared their genomes with each other and other publicly available L. crispatus genome sequences.

Results The vaginal microbiotas of mother/daughter pairs were more similar to each other if the daughter was born by vaginal delivery rather than by C-section. Additionally, genome sequences from an important member of the vaginal microbiota, L. crispatus, isolated from one mother/daughter pair in which the daughter was born by vaginal delivery, were highly similar.

Conclusion Both community-level analysis and isolate genome sequence analysis are consistent with birth-mode dependent transmission and persistence of at least some members of the vaginal microbiota.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • https://github.com/cbassis/MotherDaughter_Vaginal_Microbiota.study

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted June 06, 2020.
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Vaginal microbiota of adolescents and their mothers: A preliminary study of vertical transmission and persistence
Christine M. Bassis, Kaylie A. Bullock, Daniel E. Sack, Katie Saund, Ali Pirani, Evan S. Snitkin, Veronica I. Alaniz, Elisabeth H. Quint, Vincent B. Young, Jason D. Bell
bioRxiv 768598; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/768598
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Vaginal microbiota of adolescents and their mothers: A preliminary study of vertical transmission and persistence
Christine M. Bassis, Kaylie A. Bullock, Daniel E. Sack, Katie Saund, Ali Pirani, Evan S. Snitkin, Veronica I. Alaniz, Elisabeth H. Quint, Vincent B. Young, Jason D. Bell
bioRxiv 768598; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/768598

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