The Gut Microbiota of Wild Mice

Abstract

The gut microbiota profoundly affects the biology of its host. The composition of the microbiota is dynamic and is affected by both host genetic and many environmental effects. The gut microbiota of laboratory mice has been studied extensively, which has uncovered many of the effects that the microbiota can have. This work has also shown that the environments of different research institutions can affect the mouse microbiota. There has been relatively limited study of the microbiota of wild mice, but this has shown that it typically differs from that of laboratory mice (and that maintaining wild caught mice in the laboratory can quite quickly alter the microbiota). There is also inter-individual variation in the microbiota of wild mice, with this principally explained by geographical location. In this study we have characterised the gut (both the caecum and rectum) microbiota of wild caught Mus musculus domesticus at three UK sites and have investigated how the microbiota varies depending on host location and host characteristics. We find that the microbiota of these mice are generally consistent with those described from other wild mice. The rectal and caecal microbiotas of individual mice are generally more similar to each other, than they are to the microbiota of other individuals. We found significant differences in the diversity of the microbiotas among mice from different sample sites. There were significant correlations of microbiota diversity and body weight, a measure of age, body-mass index, serum concentration of leptin, and virus, nematode and mite infection.

Gut microbial diversity in two insectivorous bats: Insights into the effect of different sampling sources

“…The current study revealed significant differences of the microbial community composition (the alpha diversity) in different sampling sources (the large intestine, small intestine, and feces) in two bat species ( R. sinicus and M. altarium ) although no significant variations of beta diversity were observed. These results were in line with the previous studies in mice (Gu et al., ; Pang, Vogensen, Nielsen, & Hansen, ; Weldon et al., ), pigs (Looft et al., ; Mu et al., ), and sheep (Zeng et al., ). Observed differences across the sampling sources may be caused by environmental heterogeneity in different intestinal compartments and niches, such as different oxygen exposure, pH, and substrate availability (Hao & Lee, ).…”

Microbiota and reproducibility of rodent models

“…Recently, several manuscripts have questioned whether the bacterial GM of contemporary laboratory rodents is of insufficient richness and species makeup to optimally model human conditions, and proposed to use GM from wild rodents or those obtained from the pet trade 108–110 . It is reasonable to conclude that the GM of laboratory mice has been simplified over the years as these rodents have been rendered free of pathogens.…”

The Hologenome Across Environments and the Implications of a Host-Associated Microbial Repertoire

“…Similarly, gut microbiota of wild mice ( Mus musculus ) are rich in diversity (Weldon et al, 2015) and dominated by Bacteroides and Robinsoniella enterotypes, a term coined by Arumugam et al (2011) in reference to clusters of microbiota communities. Following the onset of captivity, mice were found to only maintain an association with the Robinsoniella -dominated enterotype (Wang et al, 2014).…”