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16S rRNA Gene-Amplicon-Based Profiling of the Vaginal Microbiome From North African Women

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International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Systems for Sustainable Development (AI2SD’2023) (AI2SD 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 905))

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Abstract

The vaginal microbiome is designed to have low bacterial diversity and is dominated by Lactobacillus species, which acidify this environment and protect against invading pathogens. However, dysbiosis of the vaginal microbiome contributes to many pathologies, including bacterial vaginosis (BV). In microbiome research, NGS technologies are used to analyze the 16S rRNA gene, a molecular marker present in all bacteria and archaea. This gene variability allows researchers to identify different microbial species, providing insights into community composition and diversity. We explored the vaginal microbiome composition in thirty-three North African women using 16S rRNA V3–V4 region sequencing. The number of samples was 11 diseased non-pregnant (DNP), 7 diseased pregnant (DP), 9 healthy non-pregnant (HNP), and 6 healthy pregnant (HP) women at reproductive age (25–40 years old). We intended to identify bacterial taxonomy and diversity using two bioinformatics tools, the DADA2 and EzBioCloud 16S-based Microbiome Taxonomic Profiling (MTP) pipelines. Our findings revealed an overrepresentation of pathogenic bacteria at the species level within women with BV, identified using the EzBioCloud MTP pipeline. Consequently, our efforts resulted in the effective elucidation of bacterial species and diversity using the EzBioCloud 16S-based MTP pipeline. This result contrasts with our efforts using DADA2, where the objective of species differentiation remained unachievable. EzBioCloud makes it a feasible choice for incorporation into clinical diagnostic protocols and novel therapy techniques for bacterial vaginosis. Its ability to distinguish microbiome taxonomy and identify constituent species has the potential to improve our understanding of this disorder and potentially guide therapeutic interventions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Genomics, Bioinformatics and Digital Health, School of Medicine, Mohammed VI University of Sciences and Health, Casablanca, Morocco

    Soumaya Jbara, Abdellah Azami Idrissi, Sara Fadel, Najib Al Idrissi, Rajaa Tissir & Hassan Ghazal

  2. E2SN Research Team, ENSAM, Mohammed V University in Rabat, Rabat, Morocco

    Wajih Rhalem

  3. Moroccan Society of Digital Health, Rabat, Morocco

    Wajih Rhalem

  4. Laboratory of Human Pathologies Biology and Center of Genomic of Human Pathologies Biology Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco

    Imane Allali & Youssef Bakri

  5. Royal Institute of Sports, Royal Institute for Managerial Training in Youth and Sport, Department of Sports Sciences, Laboratory of Sports Sciences and Performance Optimization, Salé, 10102, Morocco

    Hassan Ghazal

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  1. Soumaya Jbara
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  2. Abdellah Azami Idrissi
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  3. Sara Fadel
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  4. Najib Al Idrissi
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  5. Wajih Rhalem
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  6. Imane Allali
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  7. Youssef Bakri
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  8. Rajaa Tissir
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  9. Hassan Ghazal
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Correspondence to Hassan Ghazal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Sciences Department, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques of Tangier, Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Tangier, Morocco

    Mostafa Ezziyyani

  2. Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw, Poland

    Janusz Kacprzyk

  3. Department of Automatics and Applied Software at the Faculty of Engineering, University "Aurel Vlaicu" Arad and Romanian Academy of Scientists, Arad, Romania

    Valentina Emilia Balas

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Jbara, S. et al. (2024). 16S rRNA Gene-Amplicon-Based Profiling of the Vaginal Microbiome From North African Women. In: Ezziyyani, M., Kacprzyk, J., Balas, V.E. (eds) International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Systems for Sustainable Development (AI2SD’2023). AI2SD 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 905. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52385-4_14

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