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Given the lasting impact of psychological distress on behavior, along with the role of the microbiome in neurobehavioral development, we sought to examine the relationship between the microbiota and stress-induced behavioral deficits.

Male C57BL/6 mice exposed to chronic social defeat were subjected to behavioral analysis and profiling of the intestinal microbiome. Mice were also analyzed for phenotypic and functional immune changes. A computational approach on 16S rRNA marker gene sequences was used to predict functional changes in the metagenome as a consequence of structural shifts in the microbiota.

Chronic social defeat induced behavioral changes that were associated with reduced richness and diversity of the gut microbial community, along with distinct shifts at the level of operational taxonomic units (OTU) across phyla. The degree of deficits in social, but not …