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Long‐lasting Effects of Early‐life Western Diet and Exercise on Adult Gut Microbiome Composition in Mice

Increases in availability of energy‐dense foods and simultaneous reductions in physical activity of Western industrialized societies has created an environment that promotes obesity, but alterations in the gut microbiome may also play a role. As with other organismal characteristics, the microbiome may be influenced by factors experienced early in life. We previously demonstrated that early‐life wheel access for 3 weeks, starting at weaning, followed by an 8‐weeks washout period, increases adult wheel running in both selectively bred High Runner (HR) and non‐selected Control (C) lines of mice. We extended these studies by examining effects of early‐life treatments on the gut microbiome. Mice were given early‐life wheel access and/or Western diet from weaning until sexual maturation at 6 weeks of age, then housed individually without wheels and on standard diet until 14 weeks of age, when fecal samples were taken. We profiled the gut microbiome by extracting DNA from fecal samples using MoBio Laboratories PowerSoil DNA Isolation kit, amplified ITS rRNA, sequenced the libraries using an Illumina MiSeq, and chose OTUs using Usearch. For bacterial richness (number of OTUs and Chao1 index) we found a 3‐way interaction of linetype, juvenile Western diet, and juvenile wheel access. These results constitute one of the first reports of juvenile exercise and/or diet having long‐lasting effects on the adult gut microbiome after a substantial washout period (equivalent to ~6 human years).