Citation

Mondo E, Barone M, Soverini M, D'Amico F, Cocchi M, Petrulli C, Mattioli M, Marliani G, Candela M, Accorsi PA. Heliyon 2020; 6(1): e03311.

Affiliation

Department of Medical Veterinary Science, University of Bologna, Ozzano Emilia, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03311

PMID

32021942

PMCID

PMC6994854

Abstract

Accompanying human beings since the Paleolithic period, dogs has been recently regarded as a reliable model for the study of the gut microbiome connections with health and disease. In order to provide some glimpses on the connections between the gut microbiome layout and host behavior, we profiled the phylogenetic composition and structure of the canine gut microbiome of dogs with aggressive (n = 11), phobic (n = 13) and normal behavior (n = 18). Hormones' determination was made through Radio Immuno-Assay (RIA), and next generation sequencing of the V3-V4 gene region of the bacterial 16S rRNA was employed to determine gut microbiome composition. Our results did not evidence any significant differences of hormonal levels between the three groups. According to our findings, aggressive behavioral disorder was found to be characterized by a peculiar gut microbiome structure, with high biodiversity and enrichment in generally subdominant bacterial genera (i.e. Catenibacterium and Megamonas). On the other hand, phobic dogs were enriched in Lactobacillus, a bacterial genus with known probiotic and psychobiotic properties. Although further studies are needed to validate our findings, our work supports the intriguing opportunity that different behavioral phenotypes in dogs may be associated with peculiar gut microbiome layouts, suggesting possible connections between the gut microbiome and the central nervous system and indicating the possible adoption of probiotic interventions aimed at restoring a balanced host-symbiont interplay for mitigating behavioral disorders.

© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

Aggressive dogs; Animal behavior; Behavioral disorders; Biological sciences; Endocrinology; Hormones; Microbiology; Microbiome; Phobic dogs; Veterinary medicine