Discordant transmission of bacteria and viruses from mothers to babies at birth

Abstract

BackgroundThe earliest microbial colonizers of the human gut can have life-long consequences for their hosts. Precisely how the neonatal gut bacterial microbiome and virome are initially populated is not well understood. To better understand how the maternal gut microbiome influences acquisition of the infant gut microbiome, we studied the early life bacterial microbiomes and viromes of 28 infant twin pairs and their mothers.ResultsInfant bacterial and viral communities more closely resemble those of their related co-twin than unrelated infants. We found that 63% of an infant’s bacterial microbiome can be traced to their mother’s gut microbiota. In contrast, only 15% of their viral communities are acquired from their mother. Delivery route did not determine how much of the bacterial microbiome or virome was shared from mother to infant. However, bacteria-bacteriophage interactions were altered by delivery route.ConclusionsThe maternal gut microbiome significantly influences infant gut microbiome acquisition. Vertical transmission of the bacterial microbiome is substantially higher compared to vertical transmission of the virome. However, the degree of similarity between the maternal and infant gut bacterial microbiome and virome did not vary by delivery route. The greater similarity of the bacterial microbiome and virome between twin pairs than unrelated twins may reflect a shared environmental exposure. Thus, differences of the inter-generation transmissibility at birth between the major kingdoms of microbes indicate that the foundation of these microbial communities are shaped by different rules.

Enteric Viral Co-Infections: Pathogenesis and Perspective

“…Recently, the metagenomic sequencing analysis of stool samples of several cohorts of healthy neonates revealed a stepwise viral colonization model wherein prophages may be the viral pioneers in the gut at one month after birth while, by four months, eukaryotic viruses became prominent [22][23][24]. The first several years of life are then a particularly dramatic period of co-infection, and the simultaneous detection of multiple enteropathogens is common, both associated with AGE and even in the absence of symptoms.…”

Characterization of the Gut DNA and RNA Viromes in A Cohort of Chinese Residents and Visiting Pakistanis

“…Recently, viruslike particle (VLP) enrichment and subsequently metagenomic sequencing provided a prospective application for fully delineating the gut virome [22,23]. Based on the VLP technique, studies had showed that the normal gut virome was partly inherited from mother [24,25], potentially transferred between twins [4], and continuously expanded during the rst years of life [21]. In addition, longitudinal analysis revealed that the gut virome of healthy adults was highly diverse, temporally stable, and individually speci c [14].…”

Gut Microbiota beyond Bacteria—Mycobiome, Virome, Archaeome, and Eukaryotic Parasites in IBD

“…Intestinal virome is large and diverse, but nonetheless stable and highly personalized [1,73], established in the earliest period of human life simultaneously with the colonization of bacteria and other constituents of the gut microbiota [74]. The gut virome in the neonatal period predominantly consists of bacteriophages, with only a small fraction of eukaryotic viruses, and akin to the bacterial microbiome, it significantly varies across individuals [75]. In contrast to research on bacteria and fungi, no universal marker gene can be utilized to study viruses and the majority of obtained sequences do not exist in publicly available databases ("viral dark matter" [76,77]), so the usual methodological approach of virome research is metagenomics.…”