The effects of microbiota on the development of psychiatric disorders is not clear. Here, daily gavage of saline in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice (but not controls) induced social avoidance behaviour and decreased myelination in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Transfer of gut microbiota from saline-treated NOD mice to naive controls induced social deficits and lowered expression of myelin-associated genes in the PFC of recipients. Thus, changes in microbiota can alter gene expression and behaviour.
References
Gacias, M. et al. Microbiota-driven transcriptional changes in prefrontal cortex override genetic differences in social behavior. eLife http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.13442 (2016)
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Bray, N. Gut reaction. Nat Rev Neurosci 17, 335 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.65
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.65