Vagina

This template is a general guideline of how to design your site. You are not restricted to this format, so feel free to make changes to the headings and subheadings and to add additional sections as appropriate.

Description of Niche

Physical Conditions?

What are the conditions in your niche? Temperature, pressure, pH, moisture, etc.

Influence by Adjacent Communities (if any)

Is your niche close to another niche or influenced by another community of organisms?

Conditions under which the environment changes

Do any of the physical conditions change? Are there chemicals, other organisms, nutrients, etc. that might change the community of your niche.

Who lives there?

Which microbes are present?

Gardenerella vaginalis,

Lactobacillus,

Lactobacillus is one of the main microorganisms responsible for maintaining a healthy vaginal flora. Its production of Lactic acid contribute to the vaginal acidic environment. There are different strains of Lactobacillus able to colonize the vaginal flora, however, those with maximal adherence to the epithelium such as Lactobacillus acidophilus help against bacterial vaginosis (BV) due to their hydrogen peroxide producing capabilities. Bacterial Vaginosis is caused when there is a lack of Lactobacillus in the vaginal flora, allowing various types of microbes to inhabit the environment leading to complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease and sexually transmitted diseases like HIV.

Current research is identifying the best strain of Lactobacillus in order to recolonize a healthy vaginal flora. McLean and Rosenstein studied several Lactobacillus strain in order to identify the best strain able to re-colonize the vaginal flora of women with BV. This strain should be able to produce sufficient H2O2, be able to inhibitory activity against BV bacteria, acid production, and have strong adherence ability to the vaginal epithelial cell (VEC). They found two strains of the L. acidophilus (61701 and 48101) to have such characteristics (2). The Journal of Infectious Disease pulished an article showing a correlation between Lactobacillus and BV, however, an inverse correlation with HIV (1). Hydrogen Peroxide has been shown to have virucidal effects allowing the vaginal flora to have some protection against pathogens (2).

Beta Streptococcus, Bifidobacterium, Prevotella, Pseudomonas, Gemella, Acinetobacter, Atopobium, Staphylococcus, Anaerococcus, Delftia, Enterococcus, Janthinobacterium, Peptosteptococcus, Burkholderia, Finegoldia, Stenotrophomonas, Bromate-reducing bacterium, Acidovorax, Agrobacterium, Brevundimonas, Clostridium, Dechloromonas, Dialister, Moraxella, Ochrobactrum

Are there any other non-microbes present?

Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi, Yeast

Do the microbes that are present interact with each other?

Describe any negative (competition) or positive (symbiosis) behavior

Do the microbes change their environment?

Do they alter pH, attach to surfaces, secrete anything, etc. etc.

Do the microbes carry out any metabolism that affects their environment?

Do they ferment sugars to produce acid, break down large molecules, fix nitrogen, etc. etc.

Current Research

Enter summaries of the most recent research. You may find it more appropriate to include this as a subsection under several of your other sections rather than separately here at the end. You should include at least FOUR topics of research and summarize each in terms of the question being asked, the results so far, and the topics for future study. (more will be expected from larger groups than from smaller groups)

References

(1)Female Genital-Tract HIV Load Correlates Inversely with Lactobacillus Species but Positively with Bacterial Vaginosis and Mycoplasma hominis Beverly E. Sha, M. Reza Zariffard, Qiong J. Wang, Hua Y. Chen, James Bremer, Mardge H. Cohen, and Gregory T. Spear The Journal of Infectious Diseases 2005 191:1, 25-32

(2) McLean, N. W., and I. J. Rosenstein. 2000 Characterisation and selection of a Lactobacillus species to re-colonise the vagina of women with recurrent bacterial vaginosis J. Med. Microbiol. 49 543–552

(3)The Identification of Vaginal Lactobacillus Species and the Demographic and Microbiologic Characteristics of Women Colonized by These Species May A. D. Antonio, Stephen E. Hawes, and Sharon L. Hillier The Journal of Infectious Diseases 1999 180:6, 1950-1956

Streptococcal infections : clinical aspects, microbiology, and molecular pathogenesis / edited by De New York : Oxford University Press, 2000. P. 223-230, 183-186.

Contemporary therapy in obstetrics and gynecology / editors, Scott B. Ransom ... [et al.] Philadelphia : W.B. Saunders, c2002. p. 148-151.

Edited by [Jason Wong, Yumi Honda, Elieth Martinez, Raymond Villar, Eunice Kim, Whitney La], students of Rachel Larsen