This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. We are continuing to perform comparative gynecology studies in macaques and women. These studies are comparing the anatomy and immunology of the vaginal tract of humans, rhesus, and pigtail macaques using identical methodology. Since macaque genital microbiota could impact vaginal infection with SIV or SHIV, and since no previous studies used culture-independent methods to assess genital microbiota of macaques, we identified microbiota in 11 rhesus macaques using multi-tag pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The gential microbiota of the macaques was poly-microbial with a median of 9 distinct bacterial taxa (range 3-16 taxa) that each constituted at least 1% of the microbiota. Taxa that were frequently found included Peptoniphilus, Sneathia, Porphyromonas, Mobiluncus, Atopobacter, Dialister, Thioreductor, Prevotella, and Streptococcus. Lactobacillus sequences were found in only four macaques but were not predominant in any (median of 0% of sequences, range 0-39%). Significant sialidase enzyme activity, a marker for bacteria vaginosis in women, was detected in genital fluid from 9/11 and 8/11 macaques from the first and second time points respectively. These results show that the lower genital microbiota in the macaques resembled a bacteria vaginosis-type microbiota in women and that macaques could be used as an animal model for study of bacterial vaginosis.
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