Secretor status is a modifier of vaginal microbiota-associated preterm birth risk
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Mutations in the FUT2 gene that result in a lack of expression of histo-blood group antigens on secreted glycoproteins may shape the vaginal microbiota with consequences for birth outcome. To test this, we analysed the relationship between secretor status, vaginal microbiota and gestational length in an ethnically diverse cohort of 302 pregnant women, including 82 who delivered preterm. Lactobacillus gasseri and L. jensenii were found to have distinct co-occurrence patterns with other microbial taxa in non-secretors. Moreover, non-secretors with Lactobacillus spp. depleted high diversity vaginal microbiota in early pregnancy had significantly shorter gestational length than Lactobacillus spp. dominated non-secretors (mean of 241.54 days (sd=47.14) versus 266.21 (23.61); P-value=0.0251). Similar gestational length differences were observed between non-secretors with high vaginal diversity and secretors with Lactobacillus spp. dominance (mean of 262.52 days (SD=27.73); p-value=0.0439) or depletion (mean of 266.05 days (SD=20.81); p-value=0.0312). Our data highlight secretor status and blood-group antigen expression as being important mediators of vaginal microbiota–host interactions in the context of preterm birth risk.
Date Issued
2024-12
Date Acceptance
2024-10-17
Citation
Microbial Genomics, 2024, 10 (12)
ISSN
2057-5858
Publisher
Microbiology Society
Journal / Book Title
Microbial Genomics
Volume
10
Issue
12
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Authors
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between
the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between
the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.001323
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2024-12-04