A comprehensive non-redundant gene catalog reveals extensive within-community intraspecies diversity in the human vagina.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32103005.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-14677-3 and PMC identifier 7044274.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Analysis of metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data is complicated and typically requires extensive computational resources. Leveraging a curated reference database of genes encoded by members of the target microbiome can make these analyses more tractable. In this study, we assemble a comprehensive human vaginal non-redundant gene catalog (VIRGO) that includes 0.95 million non-redundant genes. The gene catalog is functionally and taxonomically annotated. We also construct a vaginal orthologous groups (VOG) from VIRGO. The gene-centric design of VIRGO and VOG provides an easily accessible tool to comprehensively characterize the structure and function of vaginal metagenome and metatranscriptome datasets. To highlight the utility of VIRGO, we analyze 1,507 additional vaginal metagenomes, and identify a high degree of intraspecies diversity within and across vaginal microbiota. VIRGO offers a convenient reference database and toolkit that will facilitate a more in-depth understanding of the role of vaginal microorganisms in women's health and reproductive outcomes.
Medical subject headings
- Bacteria
- Microbiota
- Transcriptome
- Vagina