Mom Knows Best: The Universality of Maternal Microbial Transmission

By L. J. Funkhouser, Seth R. Bordenstein. PLoS Biology, 2013

746 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The sterile womb paradigm is an enduring premise in biology that human infants are born sterile. Recent studies suggest that infants incorporate an initial microbiome before birth and receive copious supplementation of maternal microbes through birth and breastfeeding. Moreover, evidence for microbial maternal transmission is increasingly widespread across animals. This collective knowledge compels a paradigm shift—one in which maternal transmission of microbes advances from a taxonomically specialized phenomenon to a universal one in animals. It also engenders fresh views on the assembly of the microbiome, its role in animal evolution, and applications to human health and disease.

Subfields: Emergency Medical Services, Molecular Biology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a4860dc745888387805f51bb4994492d02863b08

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Citations in the corpus

The infant microbiome development: mom matters (2014, positive): “The intrauterine environment during healthy pregnancy has been presumed to be free of bacteria (see [36] for a review and critique of this perspective), although recent evidence of microbes present in the amniotic fluid [37–40], umbilical cord blood [41], fetal membranes [42], and placenta [43–49] o”
Host Biology in Light of the Microbiome: Ten Principles of Holobionts and Hologenomes (2015, background): “Persuasive evidence is thoroughly reviewed elsewhere [35,105,106].”
Microbial genes, brain & behaviour – epigenetic regulation of the gut–brain axis (2014, background): “However, it is important to bear in mind that increasing evidence suggests that Caesarean-derived newborns are, against longstanding dogma, not sterile (for a recent review see Funkhouser & Bordenstein 2013).”
Contribution of neutral processes to the assembly of gut microbial communities in the zebrafish over host development (2015, background): “…et al., 2012), the general variable nature of infant microbiota over time (Koenig et al., 2011), and observations that the infant microbiota is heavily influenced by exogenous microbial communities, specifically those of the mother (Dominguez-Bello et al., 2010; Funkhouser and Bordenstein, 2013).”
Control of Brain Development, Function, and Behavior by the Microbiome (2015, neutral): “A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript 2014; Borre et al., 2014; Funkhouser and Bordenstein, 2013; Jimenez et al., 2008).”
The composition of the gut microbiota throughout life, with an emphasis on early life (2015, background): “horizontal transmission may increase the chance for optimal mutualism (21).”
A critical assessment of the “sterile womb” and “in utero colonization” hypotheses: implications for research on the pioneer infant microbiome (2017, background): “It has also been proposed that the fetal-placental environment has evolved to facilitate the establishment of a diverse microbiome that further plays a role in the acquisition and assembly of the infant’s gut microbiome through in utero transmission of microbes [4, 39, 51].”
Bacterial communities in meerkat anal scent secretions vary with host sex, age, and group membership (2014, background): “2000; Safi and Kerth 2003) and mothers may transmit bacteria to their offspring during the early stage of life (Davies 1971; Mändar and Mikelsaar 1996, reviewed in Funkhouser and Bordenstein 2013), bacteria may also be at the origin of group or kin scent signatures (Theis et al.”
The Hologenome Concept: Human, Animal and Plant Microbiota (2014, background): “Funkhouser and Bordenstein (2013) have argued for the universality of maternal transmission of microbiota in animals.”
Holobionts as Units of Selection and a Model of Their Population Dynamics and Evolution (2018, background): “Funkhouser and Bordenstein (2013) have argued for the universality of maternal transmission of microbiota.”