Comparison of microbiota profile in feces of breast and formula-fed Korean infants using pyrosequencing

Feedng in infancy is the most significant determinant of the intestinal microbiota in early life. many previous studies investigated the bacteria community in the infant GIT according to feeding type. The culture-based methods have been were used for to provide limited understanding understanding of the gut microbiology of infants in order to investigate the bacterial community of the infant’s gastrointestinal tract in the past and next generation sequencing (NSG) has rarely been employed. The aim of this study was to compare the compositions of the fecal microbiota of breast milk- fed and formula- fed Korean infants fed breast milk or formula. We analyzed the microbial communities in fecal samples collected from 20 Korean infants at 4 weeks of age using pyrosequence data. Formula fed infants (FFI) had a more diverse microbiota composed of more various bacterial species compared to than breast milk- fed infants (BFI). However, composition of the relative abundances of probiotics such as S. salivarius, L. gasseri, B. longum was were higher in breast milk Bresat- fed infants (BFI) than formula -fed infants. In particular, Bifidobacteriaceae were significantly more abundant in BFI compared with formula fed infants (FFI),which is a probiotics have been reported to play a role in the effect positive modulations of the intestinal health and the immune system. In conclusion, our study was the first attempt to analyze gut microbiota for the Korean infants by using pyrosequencing. Our data can be used as a basis for a more larger scale studies to investigate the role of the infant intestinal microbiota in certain diseases that may occur later on in adulthood.