The gut microbiome can affect various aspects of both behavior and physiology, including exercise ability, but effects on voluntary exercise have rarely been studied. We studied females from a selection experiment in which 4 replicate High Runner (HR) lines of mice are bred for voluntary exercise and compared with 4 non-selected control (C) lines. HR and C mice differ in several traits that likely interact with the gut microbiome, including higher daily running distance, body temperatures when running, spontaneous physical activity when housed without wheels, and food consumption. After two weeks of wheel access to reach a stable plateau in daily running, mice were administered broad-spectrum antibiotics for 10 days. Antibiotic treatment caused a significant reduction in daily wheel-running distance in the HR mice (−21%) but not in the C mice. Antibiotics did not affect body mass or food consumption in either HR or C mice, and we did not observe sickness behavior. Wheel running by HR mice did not recover during the 12 days following cessation of antibiotics. The decreased wheel-running in HR but not C mice, with no apparent negative side effects of antibiotics, suggests that the HR microbiome is an important component of their high-running phenotype.

肠道微生物组可以影响行为和生理的各个方面，包括运动能力，但很少研究对自愿运动的影响。我们从一个选择实验中研究了雌性，其中 4 个重复的 High Runner (HR) 小鼠系被培育用于自愿运动，并与 4 个未选择的对照 (C) 系进行比较。HR 和 C 小鼠在可能与肠道微生物组相互作用的几个特征上有所不同，包括更高的每日跑步距离、跑步时的体温、没有轮子的自发体育活动以及食物消耗。经过两周的车轮进入以达到日常跑步的稳定平台后，小鼠被给予广谱抗生素 10 天。抗生素治疗导致 HR 小鼠 (-21%) 的每日车轮运行距离显着减少，但 C 小鼠没有。抗生素不影响 HR 或 C 小鼠的体重或食物消耗，我们没有观察到疾病行为。在停止使用抗生素后的 12 天内，HR 小鼠的轮子没有恢复。HR 而非 C 小鼠的轮跑减少，没有明显的抗生素副作用，这表明 HR 微生物组是其高跑表型的重要组成部分。