6 The term microbiome was coined in 2001 by Hooper et al.7 A microbiome is the collective genomes of microbiota, or widely defined as the totality of micro-organisms and their genomes in a particular environment. Diverse microbiomes exist in every ecological environment, including marine and

soil systems, as well as multiple interface compartments on the human body. The human microbiota contains an estimated 1014 micro-organisms—10 times the number of human cells in the body. The collective human microbiomal genome includes over 100 times the number of genes found in the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical human genome.8 Hattori and Taylor suggested that we should regard ourselves as “superorganisms,” inclusive of resident micro-organisms, and that the composite human–mirobiomal genome be referred to as the human Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical “metagenome.”8 Sponsored by the NIH Common Fund, an international collaborative, “The Human Microbiome Project,” was launched in 2007.9,10 Its aim is to collect, integrate, and characterize the genomic sequences of microbial communities at five different sites of the human body: nasal passages, oral cavities, skin, gastrointestinal tract, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and urogenital tract, and to analyze the role of the microbes

in human health and disease.9,10 In order to detect microbial perturbations in selleck association with pathology, a conserved “core” microbiome must be defined, perhaps at a species-level phylotype in a specific body habitat. In their largest human microbiota time series analysis to date, Caporaso et al. reported minor Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical overall compositional differences among individuals for a given compartment, and that a surprisingly small yet stable temporal “core human microbiome” exists within an individual over time.11 They suggested a minimal core microbiome, with the complexity of the core decreasing as follows: mouth > gut > palms > across body sites Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical within an individual > across body sites and individuals.11 The intestinal microbiome is currently the one most comprehensively explored.8 Though, of the five primary microbiomal compartments defined by “The Human Microbiome Project”, the microbiome of the

urogenital tract is Urease one of the least understood. Molecular microbial interactions at the interface between vaginal epithelia and resident microflora emerge as a “new frontier” in the study of invasive as well as non-invasive pathologies. The following section summarizes current knowledge of the resident microbiome in the female genital tract. Currently, etiology is unknown for some of the most important obstetric conditions, such as pre-eclampsia, premature preterm rupture of membranes, premature labor, preterm delivery, intrauterine growth restriction, gestational diabetes, abruptio placentae, late abortions, stillbirth, hyperemesis gravidarum, and gestational trophoblastic disease, although a microbial role has been implicated in all these conditions.