Bradford L Latéy, Ravel Jacques
a Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine , Baltimore , MD , USA.
b Department of Microbiology and Immunology , University of Maryland School of Medicine , Baltimore , MD , USA.
Virulence. 2017 Apr 3;8(3):342-351. doi: 10.1080/21505594.2016.1237332. Epub 2016 Sep 22.
Most of what is known about fungi in the human vagina has come from culture-based studies and phenotypic characterization of single organisms. Though valuable, these approaches have masked the complexity of fungal communities within the vagina. The vaginal mycobiome has become an emerging field of study as genomics tools are increasingly employed and we begin to appreciate the role these fungal communities play in human health and disease. Though vastly outnumbered by its bacterial counterparts, fungi are important constituents of the vaginal ecosystem in many healthy women. Candida albicans, an opportunistic fungal pathogen, colonizes 20% of women without causing any overt symptoms, yet it is one of the leading causes of infectious vaginitis. Understanding its mechanisms of commensalism and patho-genesis are both essential to developing more effective therapies. Describing the interactions between Candida, bacteria (such as Lactobacillus spp.) and other fungi in the vagina is funda-mental to our characterization of the vaginal mycobiome.
目前已知的关于人类阴道真菌的大部分信息都来自基于培养的研究以及单一生物体的表型特征分析。尽管这些方法很有价值，但它们掩盖了阴道内真菌群落的复杂性。随着基因组学工具的日益应用，阴道真菌微生物组已成为一个新兴的研究领域，并且我们开始认识到这些真菌群落在人类健康和疾病中所起的作用。尽管真菌数量远远少于细菌，但在许多健康女性中，真菌是阴道生态系统的重要组成部分。白色念珠菌是一种机会性真菌病原体，在20%的女性体内定植却不引起任何明显症状，但它却是感染性阴道炎的主要病因之一。了解其共生和致病机制对于开发更有效的治疗方法都至关重要。描述念珠菌、细菌（如乳酸杆菌属）和阴道内其他真菌之间的相互作用是我们表征阴道真菌微生物组的基础。
