Paternal and induced gut microbiota seeding complement mother-to-infant transmission

Microbial colonization of the neonatal gut involves maternal seeding, which is partially disrupted in cesarean-born infants and after intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis. However, other physically close individuals could complement such seeding. To assess the role of both parents and of induced seeding, we analyzed two longitudinal metagenomic datasets (health and early life microbiota [HELMi]: N = 74 infants, 398 samples, and SECFLOR: N = 7 infants, 35 samples) with cesarean-born infants who received maternal fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). We found that the father constitutes a stable source of strains for the infant independently of the delivery mode, with the cumulative contribution becoming comparable to that of the mother after 1 year. Maternal FMT increased mother-infant strain sharing in cesarean-born infants, raising the average bacterial empirical growth rate while reducing pathogen colonization. Overall, our results indicate that maternal seeding is partly complemented by that of the father and support the potential of induced seeding to restore potential deviations in this process.