Strong effects of lab-to-field environmental transitions on the bacterial intestinal microbiota of Mus musculus are modulated by Trichuris muris infection

Studies of controlled lab animals and natural populations represent two insightful extremes of microbiota research. We bridged these two approaches by transferring lab-bred female C57BL/6 mice from a conventional mouse facility to an acclimation room and then to an outdoor enclosure, to investigate how the gut microbiota changes with environment. Mice residing under constant conditions served as controls. Using 16S rRNA sequencing of fecal samples, we found that the shift in temperature and humidity, as well as exposure to a natural environment, increased microbiota diversity and altered community composition. Community composition in mice exposed to high temperatures and humidity diverged as much from the microbiota of mice housed outdoors as from the microbiota of control mice. Additionally, infection with the nematode Trichuris muris modulated how the microbiota responded to environmental transitions: The dynamics of several families were buffered by the nematodes, while invasion rat...

针对受控实验动物与自然种群的相关研究，构成了微生物组研究中两种极具洞察价值的极端研究路径。本研究通过衔接这两类研究思路，将实验繁育的雌性C57BL/6小鼠从常规实验动物饲养设施转移至适应室，随后转入户外围场，以此探究肠道微生物组（gut microbiota）随环境变化的规律。饲养于恒定环境中的小鼠作为对照组。通过对粪便样本进行16S核糖体RNA（16S rRNA）测序，我们发现：温湿度变化以及暴露于自然环境，均可提升微生物组多样性并改变群落组成结构。暴露于高温高湿环境的小鼠，其肠道微生物组群落组成与户外饲养小鼠以及对照组小鼠的微生物组均存在显著分化。此外，感染鼠鞭虫（Trichuris muris）可调节微生物组对环境转变的响应模式：部分微生物科的动态变化受到该线虫的缓冲，而入侵率...