Determinants of S. aureus carriage in the developing infant nasal microbiome

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of healthcare- and community-associated infections and can be difficult to treat due to antimicrobial resistance. About 30% of individuals carry S. aureus asymptomatically in their nares, a risk factor for later infection, and interactions with other species in the nasal microbiome likely modulate its carriage. It is thus important to identify ecological or functional genetic elements within the maternal or infant nasal microbiomes that influence S. aureus acquisition and retention in early life. In this study, we we examined nasal microbiome development in 36 mother-infant pairs over the first year after birth, combining shotgun metagenomic profiling of a subset of longitudinal samples with monthly S. aureus culture-based testing.