title: Bacterial communities in neonatal feces are similar to mothers' placentae.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The gut microbiota plays an important role in human health. It is essential to understand how the composition of the gut microbiota in neonates is established.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the nature of the microbial community in the first feces of newborn infants compared with the mothers' placentae and vaginas.
  
  
  METHODS
  One infant who was delivered via Cesarean section was compared with an infant who was delivered vaginally. Bar-coded pyro-sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA genes was used to investigate the bacterial community composition and structure of each site.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Neonatal feces of both infants had similar bacterial communities, and they were similar to the mother's placenta regardless of the method of delivery. The vaginal bacterial community differed between the two mothers, but not different sites within the vagina. The bacteria in the neonatal feces and the mothers' placentae demonstrated considerably higher diversity compared with the vaginas. The family Lactobacillaceae dominated in the vaginal samples, while the most abundant family in the fecal and placental samples was Micrococcineae.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results may provide new directions for the study of infant gut microbial formation.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering; ; Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Chenggong; ; Department of Obstetrics, First People Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
authors.forename: Xu-Dong
authors.initials: XD
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Chenggong;
authors.forename: Xiao-Ran
authors.initials: XR
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Chenggong;
authors.forename: Jian-Jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Luan
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Chenggong;
authors.forename: Xiao-Feng
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, First People Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Chenggong;
authors.forename: Yi-Yong
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Chenggong;
authors.forename: Chen-Jian
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: Bacterial community; Neonates’ feces; Placenta; Vagina