Genome wide association study of vaginal microbiota genetic diversity in French women

The composition of the vaginal microbiota is known to be highly structured into five main community state types (CSTs) that are found in all human populations. Several associations between self-reported ethnicity and the type of community have been reported. Analysing data from in 168 women from the PAPCLEAR cohort study in France, we perform a genome wide association studies (GWAS) looking for human genetic polymorphisms that may impact vaginal microbiota community composition. We show that Shannon diversity is the trait related to the vaginal microbiota that is best explained by the human genome. Furthermore, we identify two genomic regions associated with its variations. This is one of the first GWAS to use microbial genetic data instead of symptoms to characterise the vaginal microbiota and our results call for more powered studies in terms of participants and genome coverage.