Yan Shao, Shuyi Wang, Bonface M. Gichuki, Mark Stares, Timothy Rozday, Nitin Kumar, Hilary P. Browne, Nicholas J.R. Dawson, James M. Njunge, Caroline Tigoi, Narshion Ngao, Mohammod Jobayer Chisti, Benson Singa, Samuel Kariuki, Abdoulaye Hama Diallo, Ali Faisal Saleem, Syed Asad Ali, Ezekiel Mupere, Emmie Mbale, Kirkby D. Tickell, Wieger Voskuijl, Christina Lancioni, Robert Bandsma, Tahmeed Ahmed, Judd L. Walson, James A. Berkley, Trevor D. Lawley
Bifidobacterium longum and B. infantis are pioneer colonizers of the neonatal gut and are widely used as probiotics to support infant growth, development, and disease resistance. However, commercial strains derived largely from high-income countries (HICs) may be suboptimal for infants in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We assembled a global genomic atlas of more than 4,000 genomes from 48 countries, increasing representation from LMICs by 12- to 17-fold. High-resolution phylogenomic and functional analyses support delineating B. longum and B. infantis as distinct species with divergent functions and epidemiological patterns. B. infantis dominates early-life microbiota in LMICs but is rarely detected in HICs. Natural B. infantis strains show extreme biogeographic stratification and predicted adaptations to local plant-glycan-rich diets and breast-milk-derived substrates, including urea and B vitamins. This genomic resource enables genome-guided selection of geographically matched strains to inform more effective probiotics and precision microbiome therapeutics for diverse infant populations.