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 rates of two taxa acquired outdoors were magnified. These findings suggest that gut bacterial communities respond dynamically and simultaneously to changes within the host's body (e.g. the presence of nematodes) and to changes in the wider environment of the host.

中文翻译：

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Trichuris murisinfection调节实验室到田间环境转变对小家鼠细菌肠道菌群的强烈影响。

受控实验室动物和自然种群的研究代表了微生物群研究的两个有见地的极端。我们通过将实验室繁殖的雌性C57BL / 6小鼠从常规小鼠设施转移到适应室，然后转移到室外围栏，来研究这两种方法之间的联系，以研究肠道菌群如何随环境变化。在恒定条件下居住的小鼠用作对照。使用粪便样品的16S rRNA测序，我们发现温度和湿度的变化以及暴露于自然环境中会增加微生物群落多样性并改变群落组成。暴露于高温和高湿度的小鼠中的群落组成与在室外饲养的小鼠的微生物区系和对照小鼠的微生物区系差异很大。此外，线虫感染旋毛虫（Trichuris muris）调节了微生物群落对环境转变的反应：线虫缓冲了数个科的动态，而在户外获得的两个类群的入侵率则得到了放大。这些发现表明，肠道细菌群落对宿主体内的变化（例如，线虫的存在）以及宿主更广泛的环境中的变化动态且同时做出反应。