Longitudinal Profiling of the Macaque Vaginal Microbiome Reveals Similarities to Diverse Human Vaginal Communities
Nicholas S. Rhoades, Sara M. Hendrickson, Danielle R. Gerken, Kassandra Martinez, Ov D. Slayden, Mark K. Slifka, Ilhem Messaoudi
Abstract
species. However, in the developing world, many asymptomatic women harbor diverse vaginal microbial communities that are typically associated with bacterial vaginosis. Many questions remain about the drivers and health implications of a diverse vaginal microbial community. Rhesus macaques provide an excellent translational model to address these questions due to significant physiological and genetic homology with humans. In this study, we performed a longitudinal analysis of clinical and microbiome data from a large cohort of reproductive-age rhesus macaques. At the taxonomic, genomic, and functional levels, the rhesus macaque vaginal microbiome was most similar to that of humans, who harbor a diverse vaginal community associated with asymptomatic/symptomatic bacterial vaginosis. Our in-depth and comprehensive analysis highlights the utility of macaques as a model to study diverse vaginal community state types and test interventions for manipulating the vaginal microbiome.