Composition of gut microbiota in infants in China and global comparison

Symbiotic gut microbiota is essential for human health, and its compositional changes have been associated with various complex disorders. However, systematic investigation of the acquisition and development of gut microbial communities during early infancy are relatively rare, particularly for infants from non-Western countries. In this study, we characterize the colonization and development of infant microbiota in healthy Chinese infants and compare the pattern with those from other countries. The fecal microbiota of 2-month-old infants was considerably more diverse than that of neonates, as indicated by higher relative abundances of Veillonella, Clostridium, Bacteroides, Lactobacillus, Collinsella and Prevotella, and reduction of Escherichia and Enterococcus. The fecal microbiota of vaginally delivered infants (both neonates and 2-month-old) had significant enrichment of Bacteroides, Parabacteroides and Megamonas, whereas cesarean delivered infants had enrichment of Prevotella, Streptococcus and Trabulsiella. By global comparison, we identify three different enterotypes, referred as “P-type”, “A-type ”and “F-type” which were highly abundant in Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes, respectively. The three enterotypes’ compositons vary geographically. All Chinese infants in our study belong to the P-type. These findings may provide novel insights into our understanding of the establishment of infant fecal bacterial communities.