Mother-to-Child Transmission of and Multiple-Strain Colonization by Bacteroides fragilis in a Cohort of Mothers and Their Children

Bacteroides fragilis represents an early infant colonizer with important host interactions. Our knowledge about the diversity, transmission, and persistence of this bacterium, however, is limited. Here, we addressed these questions using a combination of multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) sequence analyses. We used both culture-dependent and -independent typing. We genotyped B. fragilis in fecal samples from a cohort of 93 mothers and their children, with samples taken from the mothers and from the children at the ages 1 to 10 days, 4 months, 1 year, and 2 years. By MLST we found two main B. fragilis groups, which we denoted clades A and B. Direct typing of stool samples using the icd gene revealed seven sequence types, five within clade A and two within clade B. A single clade A sequence type, however, represented 79% of all the sequences. This sequence type was further subtyped using VNTR. VNTR subtyping revealed 16 different VNTR types. Based on the distribution patterns of these, we show mother-to-child transmission and multiple-strain colonization. We argue that negative host selection promotes the coexistence of multiple strains. The significance of our findings is that we have started unraveling the transmission and persistence patterns of one of the most important human gut colonizers.