Acquisition and Personalization of the Oral Baby-biome

Objectives: The oral microbiome is a complex and dynamic system that is affected by environmental perturbations. Pregnancy is one such perturbation that has been shown to change this microbiome, but it is unknown to what extent, and when it returns to its pre-pregnancy state. Additionally, it is known that the maternal microbiome influences the microbiome of her offspring, but the point at which the baby-biome diverges is unknown. The objectives of this study were to determine, using a longitudinal study design, when the baby-biome diverges from the mommy-biome, as well as determine the restitution of the maternal-biome post parturition.
Methods: Saliva samples were collected from 59women and their infants. The first sample was collected during the third trimesterof pregnancy. The subsequent dyad samples were collected 4-6 weeks postpartum and 4 months postpartum. DNA was isolated from the samples and sequenced using 16S pyrotag sequencing targeting the V1-V3 and V6-V9 regions. The sequences were aligned against the Human Oral Microbiome Database (HOMD) using the QIIME pipeline for bacterial level identification and characterization. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to test for significance.
Results: The pregnancy-influenced microbiome demonstrated significant shifts post-partum in both nonsmokers and smokers, however the pace of change is different between groups. Predentate children shared a median of 85% of s-OTUs and 100% of core s-OTUs with their mothers. Maternal smoking, but not gender, mode of delivery, feeding habits or type of fooddiscriminated between predentate microbial profiles.
Conclusions: The maternal oral microbiome has a profound influence in shaping the oral babybiome.