Page 1 TITLE PAGE Title: Intestinal microbiota in neonates requiring urgent surgery: assessing the role of probiotics using fecal DNA sequencing. Running Title: Analysis of intestinal microbiota in infants Authors: Hiroshi Murakami 1* , Yumi Shimomura 2* , Mitsuharu Matsumoto 2 , Geoffrey J Lane 1 , Atsuyuki Yamataka 1 , Manabu Okawada 1 Institutions: 1 Department of Pediatric General & Urogenital Surgery Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan 2 Research Laboratories, Kyodo Milk Industry Co., Ltd * These authors contributed equally to this work. Correspondence and address reprint request to: Manabu Okawada Department of Pediatric General & Urogenital Surgery Juntendo University School of Medicine 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan Tel: +81-3-3813-3111 Fax: +81-3-5802-2033 E-mail: manabu-o@juntendo.ac.jp