Birth Mode Does Not Determine the Presence of Shared Bacterial Strains between the Maternal Vaginal Microbiome and the Infant Stool Microbiome.

Dysbiosis of the neonatal gut microbiome during early life has been suggested as the missing link that may explain higher rates of certain diseases in caesarean section-delivered infants. Many studies report delivery mode-related dysbiosis in infants due to a lack of maternal vaginal microbiome exposure, prompting interventions to correct the neonatal gut microbiome by transferring these missing microbes after caesarean delivery. The maternal vaginal microbiome is among the first microbial exposures that many infants experience, yet little is known about the extent of direct transmission of maternal vaginal microbes.

60 barcode sequences accurately identify newly defined genera within the .

The 60 barcode sequence has been established as an informative target for microbial species identification. Applications of 60 barcode sequencing are supported by the availability of "universal" PCR primers for amplification and a curated reference database of 60 sequences, cpnDB. A recent reclassification of lactobacilli involving the definition of 23 new genera provided an opportunity to update cpnDB and to determine if the 60 barcode could be used for accurate identification of species consistent with the new framework.