Patterned progression of bacterial populations in the premature infant gut

In the weeks after birth, the gut acquires a nascent microbiome, and starts its transition to bacterial population equilibrium. This early-in-life microbial population quite likely influences later-in-life host biology. However, we know little about the governance of community development: does the gut serve as a passive incubator where the first organisms randomly encountered gain entry and predominate, or is there an orderly progression of members joining the community of bacteria? We used fine interval enumeration of microbes in stools from multiple subjects to answer this question. We demonstrate via 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing of 922 specimens from 58 subjects that the gut microbiota of premature infants…

• GF
  Gerber Foundation
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: U54HG004968, P30DK052574, UH3AI083265
• NI
  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• NI
  National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
• EK
  Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development