RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Placenta microbiome diversity is associated with maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and placenta biogeography JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 659797 DO 10.1101/659797 A1 Paula A. Benny A1 Fadhl M. Al-Akwaa A1 Corbin Dirkx A1 Ryan J. Schlueter A1 Thomas K. Wolfgruber A1 Ingrid Y. Chern A1 Suzie Hoops A1 Dan Knights A1 Lana X. Garmire YR 2019 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/06/04/659797.abstract AB Recently there has been considerable debate in the scientific community regarding the placenta as the host of a unique microbiome. No studies have addressed the associations of clinical conditions such as maternal obesity, or localizations on the placental microbiome. We examined the placental microbiome in a multi-ethnic maternal pre-pregnant obesity cohort using controls for environmental contaminants and an optimized microbiome protocol to enrich low bacterial biomass samples. We confirmed that a distinct placenta microbiome does exist, as compared to the environmental background. The placenta microbiome consists predominantly of Lactobacillus, Enterococcus and Chryseobacterium. Moreover, the microbiome in the placentas of obese pre-pregnant mothers are less diverse when compared to those of mothers of normal pre-pregnancy weight. Lastly, microbiome richness also decreases from the maternal side to fetal side. In summary, our study reveals associations of placental microbiome with placenta biogeography and with maternal pre-pregnant obesity.