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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbial Symbioses
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1440427
This article is part of the Research Topic Parasite, Host, and Microbiome Interactions in Natural Host Systems View all 8 articles

Parasite-gut microbiota associations in wild wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus)

Provisionally accepted
Kirsty J Marsh Kirsty J Marsh 1,2Aura R Raulo Aura R Raulo 3*Joanne P Webster Joanne P Webster 1Sarah C L Knowles Sarah C L Knowles 3*
  • 1 Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, University of London, London, England, United Kingdom
  • 2 University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
  • 3 Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The mammalian gastrointestinal tract provides a habitat for multiple commensal and pathogenic organisms spanning all three domains of life. Both positive and negative interactions to occur between gut inhabitants, with potential consequences for host health. Studies of parasite-microbiota associations in natural systems remain scarce, yet are important for understanding how parasite 2 communities and commensal microbiota shape each other, and how these interactions influence host health. Here, we characterise associations between helminth and coccidial infections and gut microbiota profiles in a wild population of wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) over three years, using two complimentary approaches. We first examined parasite-microbiota associations along the length of the gastrointestinal tract through destructive sampling. Then, in a larger non-invasive capture markrecapture study we assessed whether gut parasitic infections detected in faeces predicted faecal microbiota diversity and composition. We found that while overall microbiota composition was not associated with infection by any common gut parasite species, microbiota richness was associated with gut parasitism in two ways: (i) Infection by the trematode Corrigia vitta in the small intestine predicted higher microbiota diversity in the caecum; (ii) There was a negative relationship between gut parasite richness and faecal microbiota richness in the non-invasive study. As our results identified associations between gastrointestinal parasites and microbiota alpha diversity, future experimental work in this tractable wild mammalian system would be valuable to definitively test the directionality of these interactions.

    Keywords: microbiota, parasite, wildlife, Observational, rodent

    Received: 29 May 2024; Accepted: 10 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Marsh, Raulo, Webster and Knowles. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Aura R Raulo, Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Sarah C L Knowles, Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.