Figure 1.

The factors affecting maternal or infant microbiota and the windows of opportunity for microbiota modulation. As shown in the figure, the maternal microbiota and the infant microbiota are affected by environmental and genetic factors. During pregnancy, the main influencing factors of the maternal microbiota are diet, use of antibiotics, infection, stress, and host genetics. During delivery, the maternal microbiota will be transmitted vertically to the newborn, and the delivery mode and the gestational age of the newborn at birth affect the colonization of the newborn’s microbiota. The main influencing factors of infant microbiota are feeding mode, maternal diet, family lifestyle, geographic location, and host genetics. The window of opportunity for offspring microbiota modulation are pregnancy, delivery, infancy, and toddler.