Spatial and temporal stability of the bank vole gut microbiota in a disturbed environment

Gut microbiota play an important role in multiple aspects of host health, although processes that drive the spatio-temporal dynamics of host-gut microbe relationship in wild vertebrates are not well-understood, particularly in the context of exposure to environmental stressors. We performed capture-mark-recapture of wild bank voles inhabiting areas that differed in levels of environment stress, i.e. radionuclide contamination. We found that in absence of radionuclide contamination the bank vole gut microbiota community is both diverse (via inter-individual variation) and temporally dynamic in contrast to the gut microbiota in contaminated areas where there is an apparent constraint on the bank vole gut microbiota community composition. Our data demonstrate how environmental stress (radiation exposure) decrease inter-individual variation and potentially constrain the microbiomes of the CH voles, irrespective of the diet and host-specific factors.