Interspecific social contacts spread gut microbiota in wild rodent communities

Social associations among conspecifics strongly predict gut microbiota similarity in three sympatric rodent species, while interspecific spatial proximity predicts similarity across species at both woodlands.

• Why it matters: Gut microbiota varies among individuals, and while conspecific transmission is known, how social contact spreads microbes across species boundaries in wild communities remains unclear.
• What they did: Using high-resolution tracking over more than 10 months plus gut microbiota profiling, the study built multi-species social networks and tested links between social associations, spatial overlap, and microbiota similarity in Apodemus sylvaticus, Apodemus flavicollis, and Myodes glareolus.
• The result: Interspecific social associations also predicted microbiota similarity but were weaker and asymmetric, with evidence for stronger transmission from wood mice to yellow-necked mice; wood mice with more connections to yellow-necked mice showed greater richness of yellow-necked–typical gut bacteria.

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