Gut microbiome structure and adrenocortical activity in dogs with aggressive and phobic behavioral disorders

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by ChiomaBlessing on 2025-4-29
Citation
PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.
DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.
URI Uniform resource identifier for web resources.
Authors
Mondo E, Barone M, Soverini M, D'Amico F, Cocchi M, Petrulli C, Mattioli M, Marliani G, Candela M, Accorsi PA
Journal
Heliyon
Year
2020
Keywords:
Aggressive dogs, Animal behavior, Behavioral disorders, Biological sciences, Endocrinology, Hormones, Microbiology, Microbiome, Phobic dogs, Veterinary medicine
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.

Experiment 1


Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by ChiomaBlessing on 2025-4-29

Curated date: 2025/04/12

Curator: Asoler2004

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004

Subjects

Location of subjects
Italy
Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.
Canis lupus familiaris
Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology
Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces,feces
Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology
Behavior or behavioral disorder measurement Behavior or behavioral disorder measurement,behavior or behavioral disorder measurement
Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies
Normal and Phobic behavior
Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies
Aggressive behavior
Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group
Dogs presenting aggressive behavior.
Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group
31
Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group
11

Lab analysis

Sequencing type
16S
16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene
V3-V4
Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance
Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).
relative abundances
Statistical test
Random Forest Analysis
Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any)
0.05
MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?
No

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness
unchanged

Signature 1

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by ChiomaBlessing on 2025-4-29

Curated date: 2025/04/12

Curator: Asoler2004

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004

Source: Figure 3

Description: Canine gut microbiome profile of the behavior groups aggressive (Group 1) vs. normal and phobic (Group 0).

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in Aggressive behavior

NCBI Quality ControlLinks
Catenibacterium
Megamonas

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004

Experiment 2


Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by ChiomaBlessing on 2025-4-29

Curated date: 2025/04/14

Curator: Asoler2004

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004, ChiomaBlessing

Differences from previous experiment shown

Subjects

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies
Normal behavior
Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group
Dogs with aggressive behavior disorder.
Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group
18

Lab analysis

Statistical Analysis

Statistical test
Kruskall-Wallis

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness
unchanged

Signature 1

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by ChiomaBlessing on 2025-4-29

Curated date: 2025/04/14

Curator: Asoler2004

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004

Source: Figure S1

Description: Canine gut microbiome profile of the behavior groups aggressive (Group 1) vs. normal (Group 0).

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in Aggressive behavior

NCBI Quality ControlLinks
Catenibacterium
Eubacterium
Megamonas

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004

Signature 2

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by ChiomaBlessing on 2025-4-29

Curated date: 2025/04/24

Curator: Asoler2004

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004

Source: Figure S1

Description: Canine gut microbiome profile of the behavior groups aggressive (Group 1) vs. normal (Group 0).

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in Aggressive behavior

NCBI Quality ControlLinks
Bacteroides
Coprobacillus
Oscillospira
Peptostreptococcus
Sutterella

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004

Experiment 3


Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by ChiomaBlessing on 2025-4-29

Curated date: 2025/04/14

Curator: Asoler2004

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004

Differences from previous experiment shown

Subjects

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies
Phobic behavior
Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group
13

Lab analysis

Statistical Analysis

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness
unchanged

Signature 1

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by ChiomaBlessing on 2025-4-29

Curated date: 2025/04/14

Curator: Asoler2004

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004

Source: Figure S1

Description: Canine gut microbiome profile of the behavior groups aggressive (Group 1) vs. phobic (Group 0).

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in Aggressive behavior

NCBI Quality ControlLinks
Catenibacterium
Megamonas

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004

Signature 2

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by ChiomaBlessing on 2025-4-29

Curated date: 2025/04/24

Curator: Asoler2004

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004

Source: Figure S1

Description: Canine gut microbiome profile of the behavior groups aggressive (Group 1) vs. phobic (Group 0).

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in Aggressive behavior

NCBI Quality ControlLinks
Candidatus Epulonipiscium

Revision editor(s): Asoler2004