ArticleMolecular ecology2025
Indirect Environmental Effects on the Gut-Brain Axis in a Wild Mammal.
Article in Molecular ecology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Inconspicuous interactions between host physiological systems and resident microbial communities may underlie how animals respond to environmental change. For example, immunity and metabolism are regulated in part by the gut microbiota, which can be shaped indirectly by host neuroendocrine function via a 'gut-brain axis'. Yet the sensitivity of this axis in wild vertebrates remains ambiguous. Here, we investigate covariation among environmental quality, glucocorticoids and gut microbiota in a vulnerable population of Siberian flying squirrels (Pteromys volans) inhabiting a region impacted by variable rates of human disturbance. We test competing hypotheses related to direct versus indirect environmental effects (via the gut-brain axis) on adult and juvenile gut microbial communities. Adults housed a richer gut microbiota and had higher hair glucocorticoids that covaried with microbial composition, while juveniles lacked any hormone-microbiome covariation. Environmental quality (patch size and habitat diversity) predicted variation in glucocorticoids but not variation in microbial diversity, suggesting no direct effects on gut microbiota. Instead, structural equation models revealed indirect environmental effects of habitat quality on microbiota via elevations in glucocorticoids in adults. Among juveniles, habitat-induced hormonal responses had no downstream effects on microbial diversity. Together, this provides evidence for age-dependent indirect effects of the environment quality on gut microbial composition in a wild mammal by way of the host neuroendocrine system.
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Registered trials
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