Assembly, stability, and dynamics of the infant gut microbiome are linked to bacterial strains and functions in mother's milk.

ABSTRACT: The establishment of the gut microbiome in early life is critical for healthy infant development. Although human milk is recommended as the sole source of nutrition for the human infant, little is known about how variation in milk composition, and especially the milk microbiome, shapes the microbial communities in the infant gut. Here, we quantified the similarity between the maternal milk and the infant gut microbiome using 507 metagenomic samples collected from 195 mother-infant pairs at one, three, and six months postpartum. We found that the microbial taxonomic overlap between milk and the infant gut was driven by bifidobacteria, in particular by B. longum. Infant stool samples dominated by B. longum also showed higher temporal stability compared to samples dominated by o

SUBMITTER: Allert M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10849666 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature