BACKGROUND

, a microorganism highly linked to bacterial vaginosis (BV), is understudied in terms of genotypic heterogeneity in South African populations. This study investigated the prevalence of genotypes in BV-positive, BV-intermediate, and BV-negative South African pregnant women.

METHODS

The study population included = 354 pregnant women recruited from a public hospital in Durban, South Africa. The women provided self-collected vaginal swabs for BV diagnosis by Nugent scoring. For the genotyping assays, the and genes from BV-negative, BV-intermediate, and BV-positive samples were amplified with -specific primers. The amplicon was digested with to generate genotyping profiles, and subtypes were determined by correlating and digestion profiles. Phylogenetic analysis was performed on the and sequences. The data analysis was performed with R Statistical Computing software, version 3.6.2.

RESULTS

Two different genotypes, GT1 and GT2, were detected. The most prevalent genotype was GT1. Four subtypes (1, 2B, 2AB, and 2C) were shown to be present. The most prevalent subtype was 2B, followed by subtypes 1, 2C, and 2AB. The phylogenetic analysis of the showed the presence of 5 clusters. The tree displayed clusters which contained sequences from the same BV group with different genotypes and subtypes. Clusters with sequences from across the BV groups carrying the same genotype and subtype were present. Diversity of the across BV groups and genotypes was observed. Finally, the study did not find a significant association ( > 0.05) between reported symptoms of abnormal vaginal discharge and genotype harboured.

CONCLUSION

This study provided the first report on the diversity of in South African pregnant women. Diversity assessments of with respect to genotypes and virulence factors may aid in a greater understanding of the pathogenesis of this microorganism.