Development of the Human Mycobiome over the First Month of Life and across Body Sites.

With the advent of next-generation sequencing and microbial community characterization, we are beginning to understand the key factors that shape early-life microbial colonization and associated health outcomes. Studies characterizing infant microbial colonization have focused mostly on bacteria in the microbiome and have largely neglected fungi (the mycobiome), despite their relevance to mucosal infections in healthy infants. In this pilot study, we characterized the skin, oral, and anal mycobiomes of infants over the first month of life ( = 17) and the anal and vaginal mycobiomes of mothers ( = 16) by internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) amplicon sequencing.