Dissecting and tracing the gut microbiota of infants with botulism: a cross sectional and longitudinal study.

Background: Infant botulism is caused by botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT), which is mainly produced by . However, there is a lack of longitudinal cohort studies on infant botulism. Herein, we have constructed a cross-sectional and longitudinal cohort of infants infected with . Our goal was to reveal the differences in the intestinal microbiota of botulism-infected and healthy infants as well as the dynamic changes over time through multi-omics analysis.

Methods: We performed 16S rRNA sequencing of 20 infants' stools over a period of 3 months and conducted whole genome sequencing of isolated strains from these laboratory-confirmed cases of infant botulism. Through bioinformatics analysis, we focused on the changes in the infants' intestinal microbiota as well as function over time series.

Results: We found that was significantly enriched in the infected group and declined over time, whereas was significantly enriched in the healthy group and gradually increased over time. 18/20 isolates carried the type B 2 botulinum toxin gene with identical sequences. Multilocus sequence typing found that 20\u00B0 isolates from the patients were typed into ST31 and ST32.

Conclusion: Differences in intestinal microbiota and functions in infants were found with botulism through cross-sectional and longitudinal studies and may play a role in the recovery of infected infants.