Female Urinary Microbiota Genome Sequencing

Recently, bacterial communities (microbiota) have been discovered in the female bladder. Thus, the “sterile urine” paradigm is no longer valid. In an effort to provide a comprehensive view of the newly discovered female urinary microbiota (FUM), we have established an Enhanced Quantitative Urine Culture (EQUC) protocol. EQUC isolates bacteria from 75-90% of urine samples deemed 'no growth' by the standard clinical microbiology urine culture method. We have begun to sequence and annotate the genomes of these isolated bacteria.