Recent genetic drift in the co-diversified gut bacterial symbionts of laboratory mice.

ABSTRACT: Laboratory mice (Mus musculus domesticus) harbor gut bacterial strains that are distinct from those of wild mice but whose evolutionary histories are unclear. Here, we show that laboratory mice have retained gut bacterial lineages that diversified in parallel (co-diversified) with rodent species for > 25 million years, but that laboratory-mouse gut microbiota (LGM) strains of these ancestral symbionts have experienced accelerated accumulation of genetic load during the past ~ 120 years of captivity. Compared to closely related wild-mouse gut microbiota (WGM) strains, co-diversified LGM strains displayed significantly faster genome-wide rates of nonsynonymous substitutions, indicating elevated genetic drift-a difference that was absent in non-co-diversified symbiont clades. Competition expe

SUBMITTER: Sprockett DD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11883045 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature