Changes in the gut microbiota of wild mice according to environment

Abstract

BackgroundThe gut microbiota is closely linked with the health and disease status of hosts. This could be affected by multifactorial factors, among which environmental factors have a great effect on the gut microbiota, which is the cause of different phenotypes in mice. Here, we investigated the changes in the gut microbiota of wild mice according to habitat and diet.Methods and ResultsForty‐nine Mus musculus were captured from fields that were separated by rivers, roads, and mountains in Korea. Sixteen representative wild mice were transferred to laboratory animal facilities and their gut microbiota was analyzed at 2–4 weeks intervals up to 20 weeks. At the phylum level, 16 phyla were identified; among them, four phyla (Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Epsilonbacteraeota, and Proteobacteria) comprised the core gut microbiota and accounted for about 98% of the total microbiota. In alpha diversity, the number of observed OTUs and richness significantly reduced, while the evenness significantly increased. In beta diversity, the distribution of the gut microbiota initially differed depending on the habitat of wild mice. However, as wild mice adapted to laboratory animal facilities, the gut microbiota clustered together in the PCoA plot and the volatility of beta diversity also showed distinct differences. Furthermore, the relative abundance of Staphylococcus (p < 0.01) and Alistipes (p < 0.05) tended to increase at the genus level.ConclusionsDue to the variety of wild environments in which wild mice are exposed, wild mice have a greater diversity and distribution of the gut microbiota than mice exposed to constant environments. As wild mice adapted to a constant environment, the gut microbial diversity decreased and the distribution of the gut microbiota became constant. This study provides a new approach, gut microbiota analysis, in the assessment of environmental exposure in wild mice, which is limited based on phenotyping and genotyping.Support or Funding InformationThis research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF‐2018R1A2B6002396) and the Korea Mouse Phenotyping Project (2016M3A9D5A01952417) of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.