Correlating Infant Faecal Microbiota Composition and Human Milk Oligosaccharide Consumption by Microbiota of One-Month Old Breastfed Infants

SCOPE: Understanding biological functions of different free human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in shaping gastrointestinal tract microbiota during infancy is of great interest. We examined a link between HMOs in maternal milk and infant faecal microbiota composition and investigated the role of microbiota in degrading HMOs within the GI tract of healthy, breastfed, one-month old infants. METHODS AND RESULTS: Maternal breast milk and corresponding infant faeces originated from the KOALA Birth Cohort. HMOs were quantified in milk and infant faecal samples using PGC-UPLC-MS and HPAEC-PAD. Faecal microbiota composition was characterised using Illumina HiSeq amplicon 16S rRNA sequencing. The composition associated with gender, mode of delivery, and milk HMOs: Lacto-N-fucopentaose I and 2'-Fucosyllactose. Overall, Bifidobacterium, Bacteroides, Escherichia-Shigella and Parabacteroides were predominating genera. We detected three different patterns in the infant faecal microbiota structure. Gastrointestinal degradation of HMOs was strongly associated with faecal microbiota composition, and there was a link between utilisation of specific HMOs and abundance of various phylotypes (OTUs). CONCLUSIONS: HMOs in maternal milk are among important factors shaping GI tract microbiota composition in one-month old breastfed infants. Infant's ability to metabolise different HMOs strongly correlate with faecal microbiota composition, and with phylotypes within genera Bifidobacterium, Bacteroides and Lactobacillus. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved