Figure 3.

Blastocystis species are rarely shared at the strain level between mothers and their infants

(A) Blastocystis sp. subtypes (STs) prevalence in the different cohorts of infants (I) and mothers (M). Blastocystis spp. prevalence is much higher in Ethiopian and non-westernized infant metagenomes than in westernized ones, even though only three STs are found in the former. Westernized gut metagenomes generally show a lower prevalence of Blastocystis spp. but contain up to six different STs. Further details available in Table S2.

(B) Breadth of coverage and strain sharing (^∗) for different Blastocystis sp. STs in different countries. Samples reported here are those for which either the mother or the infant (or both) tested positive (BoC > 10%; see STAR Methods) for at least one ST. ST2 was shared at the strain level in all cases where both the infant (I) and the mother (M) were positive for that specific ST. ST2 was also shared between two siblings (blue ^∗). For more details, see Figure S2B.