CAS bacterial genomes
Microbial colonization of the human body begins at birth, yet the development of the infant respiratory microbiota remains poorly understood, especially at the species and strain level. We analysed archival nasopharyngeal samples collected longitudinally from infants at 2, 6, and 12 months of age between 1996 and 1998 in the Childhood Asthma Study, Western Australia. Whole-genome sequencing of cultured bacterial isolates expanded genomic reference resources and revealed substantial strain-level diversity among early-life airway taxa.