Seminal microbiome in men with and without prostatitis.
To profile the seminal microbiome applying next generation sequencing.



Semen samples of 67 men were involved in the study (21 men with and 46 men without prostatitis). Seminal microbiomes were profiled applying the method that uses combinatorial sequence tags attached to polymerase chain reaction primers that amplify the ribosomal ribonucleic acid V6 region. Amplified polymerase chain reaction products were sequenced using an Illumina paired-end protocol on HiSeq2000 platform.



The most abundant phylum in semen was Firmicutes, comprising nearly half of the sequences found (median 41.7%, quartiles 28.5-47.2%) followed by Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. The counts of lactobacilli were higher in healthy men than prostatitis patients (27% [20.2-34.6%] vs 20.2% [4.9-25.0%]; P = 0.05), especially for Lactobacillus iners. Proteobacteria comprised higher proportions in prostatitis patients than healthy men. The species richness was higher in prostatitis patients than healthy men (inverted Simpson index 13.5 ± 5.8 vs 10.3 ± 4.0).



The semen of chronic prostatitis patients contains fewer health-supporting lactobacilli, and has higher species diversity than that of healthy men. Firmicutes (especially lactobacilli), Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria comprise the highest proportion of seminal microbiome.
Competence Center on Health Technologies, Tartu, Estonia.|Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Reet
R
Mändar
Competence Center on Health Technologies, Tartu, Estonia.|Andrology Center, Tartu University Hospital, Tartu, Estonia.
Margus
M
Punab
Competence Center on Health Technologies, Tartu, Estonia.|Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.|Andrology Center, Tartu University Hospital, Tartu, Estonia.
Paul
P
Korrovits
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Silver
S
Türk
Andrology Center, Tartu University Hospital, Tartu, Estonia.|MediTA Clinic, Tartu, Estonia.
Kristo
K
Ausmees
Competence Center on Health Technologies, Tartu, Estonia.|Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Eleri
E
Lapp
Competence Center on Health Technologies, Tartu, Estonia.|Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Jens-Konrad
JK
Preem
Competence Center on Health Technologies, Tartu, Estonia.|Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Kristjan
K
Oopkaup
Competence Center on Health Technologies, Tartu, Estonia.
Andres
A
Salumets
Competence Center on Health Technologies, Tartu, Estonia.|Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Jaak
J
Truu
D000328:Adult; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification*; D004957:Estonia; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D007778:Lactobacillus; D008297:Male; D064307:Microbiota; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011472:Prostatitis / Q000382:microbiology*; D012661:Semen / Q000382:microbiology*
lactobacilli; microbiome; next-generation sequencing; prostatitis; semen