Objectives
Lactobacillus iners is the most common species in vaginal microbiota, and is observed in both healthy and dysbiotic states. Sub-strains of Lactobacillus iners may be associated with specific indigenous microbiota and exogenous infection or disease. Here, we sought to determine if sub-strains of Lactobacillus iners were present before and after antibiotic treatment of Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infection.
Methods
A subset of females was selected from a larger cohort of 129 participants who tested positive for CT at enrollment. Vaginal samples were collected at baseline prior to treatment with a single dose of azithromycin (1 mg) and every 3 months at each of the three subsequent visits. All subjects included in this study tested negative for CT at visits 2, 3, and 4. Vaginal microbiota were characterized via 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing and analysis, and the most abundant taxa observed were compared across visits for each subject. Sequences from L. iners were then isolated and evaluated for the presence of sub-strains using “oligotyping” analyses. The Shannon Entropy diversity index of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the 16S rRNA gene was used to detect bacterial sub-strains. The number of L. iners oligotypes (strains) was examined for each subject across all 4 visits.
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