The establishment and succession of bacterial communities in infants may have a profound impact on their health, but information about the composition of meconium microbiota and its evolution in hospitalized preterm infants is scarce. In this context, the objective of this work was to characterize the microbiota of meconium and fecal samples obtained during the first 72 hours of life from 181 donors using culture and molecular identification. Culture techniques offer a quantification of cultivable bacteria and allow further study of the isolate, while molecular identification provides deeper information on bacterial diversity. Inter-individual differences were detected in the microbiota profiles, although the meconium microbiota was peculiar and distinct from that of fecal samples. Bacilli and other Firmicutes were the main bacteria groups detected in meconium while Proteobacteria dominated in the fecal samples. The culture technique showed that Enterococcus, together with Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniaeStaphylococcus predominated in meconium. This study highlights that spontaneously-released meconium of preterm neonates contains a specific microbiota that differs from that of feces obtained after the first 72 hours of life.
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