Studies of the gut microbiota of urban rodents

We investigated how the gut microbiomes of a synurbic rodent species, the striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius), change in cities of varying sizes, seeking a urban microbiome pattern for this species. 70 fecal samples for analysis were collected from mice living both in rural areas and three cities of different size in Poland. Metagenomic NGS based on V3-V4 region of 16S rRNA gene and further bioinformatics analyses were conducted. The results demonstrated significant differences in the composition of gut microbiomes among the studied populations. The observed changes were dependent on local habitat conditions, but we did not find strong evidence that these changes were correlated with the size of the urbanized area. It suggest that green spaces in cities contribute to maintaining the naturalness of the gut microbiota in urban rodents.