title: Comparison of culture-dependent and culture-independent molecular methods for characterization of vaginal microflora.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To date, molecular methods that circumvent the limitations of traditional culture methods have not been used to describe the vaginal microflora in India. Here, we compared culture and culture-independent molecular methods in characterizing the vaginal microbiota in Indian women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Culture methods involved traditional cultivation on Rogosa and sheep blood agar, whereas culture-independent methods bypassed a culturing step by performing broadrange 16S rDNA PCR on DNA isolated directly from vaginal swabs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 13 women were included in the study, of which five were characterized as healthy, two were bacterial vaginosis intermediate and six were bacterial vaginosis positive according to Nugent scoring. Lactobacillus jensenii was detected most frequently when using culture methods. On the other hand, Lactobacillus iners, which was not detected by culture methods, was the most common Lactobacillus sp. detected using cultivation-independent methods.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found little overlap between the species found using cultivation-dependent and cultivation-independent methods. Rather, culture-dependent and culture-independent methods were found to be complementary in describing the vaginal microflora among South Indian women. Culture-independent methods were found to be superior in detecting clinically relevant vaginal flora.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, Karnataka, India.|Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Shirali
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pandya
authors.affiliation: Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Kavitha
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ravi
authors.affiliation: Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Vijaya
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Srinivas
authors.affiliation: Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Smitha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jadhav
authors.affiliation: Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Anisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Anjali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arun
authors.affiliation: College of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
authors.forename: Lee W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Riley
authors.affiliation: Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, Karnataka, India.|Department of Epidemiology, Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA.
authors.forename: Purnima
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Madhivanan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007778:Lactobacillus / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D064307:Microbiota; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D014621:Vagina / Q000382:microbiology*; D016585:Vaginosis, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S