title: Exploring Vertical Transmission of Bifidobacteria from Mother to Child.
abstract: Passage through the birth canal and consequent exposure to the mother's microbiota is considered to represent the initiating event for microbial colonization of the gastrointestinal tract of the newborn. However, a precise evaluation of such suspected vertical microbiota transmission has yet to be performed. Here, we evaluated the microbiomes of four sample sets, each consisting of a mother's fecal and milk samples and the corresponding infant's fecal sample, by means of amplicon-based profiling supported by shotgun metagenomics data for two key samples. Notably, targeted genome reconstruction from microbiome data revealed vertical transmission of a Bifidobacterium breve strain and a Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum strain from mother to infant, a notion confirmed by strain isolation and genome sequencing. Furthermore, PCR analyses targeting unique genes from these two strains highlighted their persistence in the infant gut at 6 months. Thus, this study demonstrates the existence of specific bifidobacterial strains that are common to mother and child and thus indicative of vertical transmission and that are maintained in the infant for at least relatively short time spans.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Milani
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mancabelli
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele Andrea
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Lugli
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Duranti
authors.affiliation: Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre and Department of Microbiology, Bioscience Institute, National University of Ireland, Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Turroni
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferrario
authors.affiliation: GenProbio, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mangifesta
authors.affiliation: GenProbio, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Viappiani
authors.affiliation: Centre for Integrative Biology, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ferretti
authors.affiliation: Azienda Provinciale per i Servizi Sanitari, Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gorfer
authors.affiliation: Centre for Integrative Biology, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tett
authors.affiliation: Centre for Integrative Biology, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Segata
authors.affiliation: Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre and Department of Microbiology, Bioscience Institute, National University of Ireland, Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: Douwe
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van Sinderen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Probiogenomics, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy marco.ventura@unipr.it.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ventura
mesh_terms: D039941:Bifidobacteriales Infections / Q000635:transmission*; D001644:Bifidobacterium / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D064307:Microbiota; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000382:microbiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial