Abstract
Microbial communities inhabiting the breast milk microenvironment are essential in supporting mammary gland health in lactating women and in providing gut-colonizing bacterial 'inoculum' for their infants' gastro-intestinal development. Bacterial DNA was extracted from colostrum samples of 45 healthy Slovenian mothers. Characteristics of the communities in the samples were assessed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) coupled with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). PCR screening for the prevalence of bacteriocin genes was performed on DNA of culturable and total colostrum bacteria. DGGE profiling revealed the presence of Staphylococcus and Gemella in most of the samples and exposed 4 clusters based on the abundance of 3 bands: Staphylococcus epidermidis/Gemella, Streptococcus oralis/pneumonia and Streptococcus salivarius. Bacilli represented the largest proportion of the communities. High prevalence in samples at relatively low quantities was confirmed by qPCR for enterobacteria (100%), Clostridia (95.6%), Bacteroides-Prevotella group (62.2%) and bifidobacteria (53.3%). Bacterial quantities (genome equivalents ml-1) varied greatly among the samples; Staphylococcus epidermidis and staphylococci varied in the range of 4 logs, streptococci and all bacteria varied in the range of 2 logs, and other researched groups varied in the range of 1 log. The quantity of most bacterial groups was correlated with the amount of all bacteria. The majority of the genus Staphylococcus was represented by the species Staphylococcus epidermidis (on average 61%), and their abundances were linearly correlated. Determinants of salivaricin A, salivaricin B, streptin and cytolysin were found in single samples. This work provides knowledge on the colostrum microbial community composition of healthy lactating Slovenian mothers and reports bacteriocin gene prevalence.