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Evidence for persistent and shared bacterial strains against a background of largely unique gut colonization in hospitalized premature infants

Journal Article · · The ISME Journal

The potentially critical stage of initial gut colonization in premature infants occurs in the hospital environment, where infants are exposed to a variety of hospital-associated bacteria. Because few studies of microbial communities are strain-resolved, we know little about the extent to which specific strains persist in the hospital environment and disperse among infants. To study this, we compared 304 near-complete genomes reconstructed from fecal samples of 21 infants hospitalized in the same intensive care unit in two cohorts, over 3 years apart. The genomes represent 159 distinct bacterial strains, only 14 of which occurred in multiple infants. Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus epidermidis, common infant gut colonists, exhibit diversity comparable to that of reference strains, inline with introduction of strains from infant-specific sources rather than a hospital strain pool. Unlike other infants, a pair of sibling infants shared multiple strains, even after extensive antibiotic administration, suggesting overlapping strain-sources and/or genetic selection drive microbiota similarities. Interestingly, however, five strains were detected in infants hospitalized three years apart. Three of these were also detected in multiple infants in the same year. Finally, this finding of a few widely dispersed and persistent bacterial colonizers despite overall low potential for strain dispersal among infants has implications for understanding and directing healthy colonization.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; SC0004918
OSTI ID:
1581584
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1535035
Journal Information:
The ISME Journal, Journal Name: The ISME Journal Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 10; ISSN 1751-7362
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (16)

Embracing microbes in exposure science journal September 2018
Strain-resolved analysis of hospital rooms and infants reveals overlap between the human and room microbiome journal November 2017
Necrotizing enterocolitis is preceded by increased gut bacterial replication, Klebsiella , and fimbriae-encoding bacteria journal December 2019
Hospitalized Premature Infants Are Colonized by Related Bacterial Strains with Distinct Proteomic Profiles journal April 2018
Machine Learning Leveraging Genomes from Metagenomes Identifies Influential Antibiotic Resistance Genes in the Infant Gut Microbiome journal January 2018
Genome-resolved metaproteomic characterization of preterm infant gut microbiota development reveals species-specific metabolic shifts and variabilities during early life journal July 2017
Combined analysis of microbial metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing data to assess in situ physiological conditions in the premature infant gut journal March 2020
Additional file 3 of Using strain-resolved analysis to identify contamination in metagenomics data dataset January 2023
Effects of early life NICU stress on the developing gut microbiome journal January 2019
Impact of Postnatal Antibiotics and Parenteral Nutrition on the Gut Microbiota in Preterm Infants During Early Life journal August 2019
dRep: a tool for fast and accurate genomic comparisons that enables improved genome recovery from metagenomes through de-replication journal July 2017
Stunted microbiota and opportunistic pathogen colonization in caesarean-section birth journal September 2019
Identical bacterial populations colonize premature infant gut, skin, and oral microbiomes and exhibit different in situ growth rates journal January 2017
Genome-reconstruction for eukaryotes from complex natural microbial communities journal March 2018
The developing premature infant gut microbiome is a major factor shaping the microbiome of neonatal intensive care unit rooms journal June 2018
Longitudinal Gut Bacterial Colonization and Its Influencing Factors of Low Birth Weight Infants During the First 3 Months of Life journal May 2019

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