Comparative analysis of the gut microbiota composition in the Cln1R151X and Cln2R207X mouse models of Batten disease and in three wild-type mouse strains.

Accumulated evidence indicates that the gut microbiota affects brain function and may be altered in neurological diseases. In this study, we analyzed the gut microbiota in Cln1R151X and Cln2R207X mice, models of the childhood neurodegenerative disorders, infantile CLN1 and late infantile CLN2 Batten diseases. Significant alterations were found in the overall gut microbiota composition and also at the individual taxonomic ranks as compared to wild-type mice. The disease-specific alterations in the gut microbiota of Cln1R151X and Cln2R207X mice may contribute to the disease phenotypes observed in these mouse models. We also compared the gut microbiota composition of three wild-type mouse strains frequently used in transgenic studies: 129S6/SvEv, C57BL/6J and mixed 129S6/SvEv × C57BL/6J. Our results show that the gut microbiota of 129S6/SvEv and C57BL/6J mice differs remarkably, which likely contributes to the known, pronounced differences in behavior and disease susceptibility between these two wild-type mouse strains.