Three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) Gut microbiota

This study investigates the gut bacterial communities of three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). The gut microbiota of 128 host individuals from four populations with low levels of accumulated mercury and four populations with high mercury levels were characterized using 16S (V3-V4) rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We explored whether these populations harbour pollution level-specific, site-specific and sex-specific microbiota to understand the microbiota-mediated responses to this environmental stressor in sticklebacks.