Explore the recorded discovery and history of Lactobacillus crispatus, with source links and stated limits.
Ravel and colleagues sequenced the vaginal microbiota of 396 asymptomatic North American women representing four ethnic groups and identified five community state types. Community state type I was dominated by L. crispatus and occurred in 26.2% of participants, and communities belonging to group I had the lowest median pH at 4.0 ± 0.3, against 5.3 ± 0.6 for the non-Lactobacillus-dominated group IV. PHAC describes Lactobacillus species generally as Gram-positive rods or coccobacilli that occasionally form short chains, non-spore-forming, non-motile, chemo-organotrophic and microaerophilic, and as part of the normal flora of humans and animals, generally regarded as safe for use in food. This profile describes a resident organism, not an infection.
LPSN records the basonym “Eubacterium crispatum” Brygoo and Aladame 1953. The epithet crispatus means curled or crisped, referring to the morphology observed originally in broth media, so the name records an appearance in culture rather than a disease.
LPSN records Lactobacillus crispatus (Brygoo and Aladame 1953) Moore and Holdeman 1970, retained on the 1980 Approved Lists of Bacterial Names. Type strain ATCC 33820 / DSM 20584 / LMG 9479.
This profile describes a normal resident of the human vaginal and gastrointestinal microbiota. There is no first human case to identify, and no infection is attributed to this species here.
Source check: 2026-09-20. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.