Dominant and Subordinate Relationship Formed by Repeated Social Encounters Alters Gut Microbiota in Greater Long-Tailed Hamsters

Social stress can dramatically influence the health of animals via communication between gut microbiota and the HPA system. However, this effect has been rarely investigated among different social ranked animals after chronic repeated social encounters. In this study, we evaluated changes and differ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microbial ecology 2020-05, Vol.79 (4), p.998-1010
Main Authors: Zhao, Jidong, Li, Guoliang, Lu, Wei, Huang, Shuli, Zhang, Zhibin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animals
Behaviour
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Communication
Composition
Control
Ecology
Fecal microflora
Geoecology/Natural Processes
Hamsters
HOST MICROBE INTERACTIONS
Intestinal flora
Intestinal microflora
Life Sciences
Microbial Ecology
Microbiology
Microbiota
Mucosa
Nature Conservation
Social interactions
Water Quality/Water Pollution
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Summary:Social stress can dramatically influence the health of animals via communication between gut microbiota and the HPA system. However, this effect has been rarely investigated among different social ranked animals after chronic repeated social encounters. In this study, we evaluated changes and differences in microbiota among control, dominant, and subordinate male greater longtailed hamsters (Tscherskia triton) over 28 successive days of repeated social encounter. Our results indicated that as compared with the control group, short-term repeated social encounters significantly altered fecal microbiota of subordinate hamsters, while chronic repeated social encounters altered colonic mucosa-associated microbiota of both dominant and subordinate hamsters. Fecal microbiota showed a transition in composition and diversity on day 2 for the subordinate group but on day 4 for the control and dominant groups under repeated encounters. Compared with their baseline, genus Lactobacillus increased in both dominant and subordinate groups, while genus Bifidobacterium increased in the subordinate group and genus Adlercreutzia increased in the dominant group. Our results suggest that chronic repeated social encounter can alter diversity and composition of gut microbiota of hamsters in both feces and colonic mucosa, but the latter performed better in reflecting the effects of chronic stress on microbiota in this species. Future studies should focus on elucidating how these microbiota alterations may affect animal behavior and fitness.
ISSN:0095-3628
1432-184X
DOI:10.1007/s00248-019-01462-z