Expanding vaginal microbiome pangenomes via a custom MIDAS database reveals Lactobacillus crispatus accessory genes associated with cervical dysplasia
Claire A. Dubin, Chunyu Zhao, Katherine S. Pollard, Tomiko Oskotsky, Jonathan L. Golob, Marina Sirota · 2026
Read Expanding vaginal microbiome pangenomes via a custom MIDAS database reveals Lactobacillus crispatus accessory genes associated with cervical dysplasia by Claire A. Dubin, Chunyu Zhao, Katherine S. Pollard, Tomiko Oskotsky, Jonathan L. Golob, Marina Sirota (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13289165.txt.
Description
Claire A Dubin and colleagues expand a reference database for vaginal bacteria in a 2026 genomics study. Studies of the vaginal microbiome usually stop at species names. Yet strains of one species can carry very different gene sets. The team built a custom database from more than eighteen thousand vaginal bacterial genomes. It plugs into a tool that tracks strain-level gene content in DNA samples.
The new database captured far more strain diversity than the standard general reference did. The team then scanned samples from women with cervical dysplasia, a precancerous change. Thirteen accessory genes in Lactobacillus crispatus, a usually helpful species, tied to dysplasia. The set included a toxin-antitoxin pair, three gene regulators, and three virus-derived genes. The authors say body-site databases are essential for finding strain effects in health research. Their resource is built for reuse by other groups.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Claire A. Dubin, Chunyu Zhao, Katherine S. Pollard, Tomiko Oskotsky, Jonathan L. Golob, Marina Sirota |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 50 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |