The rearing environment persistently modulates mouse phenotypes from the molecular to the behavioural level
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The phenotype of an organism results from its genotype and the influence of the environment throughout development. Even when using animals of the same genotype, independent studies may test animals of different phenotypes, resulting in poor replicability due to genotype-by-environment interactions. Thus, genetically defined strains of mice may respond differently to experimental treatments depending on their rearing environment. However, the extent of such phenotypic plasticity and its implications for the replicability of research findings have remained unknown. Here, we examined the extent to which common environmental differences between animal facilities modulate the phenotype of genetically homogeneous (inbred) mice. We conducted a comprehensive multicentre study, whereby inbred C57BL/6J mice from a single breeding cohort were allocated to and reared in 5 different animal facilities throughout early life and adolescence, before being transported to a single test laboratory. We found persistent effects of the rearing facility on the composition and heterogeneity of the gut microbial community. These effects were paralleled by persistent differences in body weight and in the behavioural phenotype of the mice. Furthermore, we show that environmental variation among animal facilities is strong enough to influence epigenetic patterns in neurons at the level of chromatin organisation. We detected changes in chromatin organisation in the regulatory regions of genes involved in nucleosome assembly, neuronal differentiation, synaptic plasticity, and regulation of behaviour. Our findings demonstrate that common environmental differences between animal facilities may produce facility-specific phenotypes, from the molecular to the behavioural level. Furthermore, they highlight an important limitation of inferences from single-laboratory studies and thus argue that study designs should take environmental background into account to increase the robustness and replicability of findings.
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Subtle environmental variation such as the rearing facility of mice significantly influences epigenetic patterns in neuronal genes at the level of chromatin organization, with effects on nucleosome assembly, neuronal differentiation, synaptic plasticity, and regulation of behavior.
“Jaric et al. showed that even subtle environmental variation, such as the rearing facility of the mice, significantly influenced epigenetic patterns in neuronal genes at the level of chromatin organization, with effects on nucleosome assembly, neuronal differentiation, synaptic plasticity, and regulation of behavior (518).”
From Signalling cognition: The gut microbiota and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (2023) · cites this paper as [518]
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Flagged first, then by citations
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Signalling cognition: The gut microbiota and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
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- Authors
- Jaric, I., Voelkl, B., Clerc, M., Schmid, M. W., Novak, J., Rosso, M., Rufener, R., von Kortzfleisch, V. T., Richter, S. H., Buettner, M., Bleich, A., Amrein, I., Wolfer, D. P., Touma, C., Sunagawa, S., & Würbel, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Bern (CH)
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- University of Münster (DE)
- Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (DE)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Osnabrück University (DE)
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Würbel, Hanno
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS Biology
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2022-10-21
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- e3001837
- ISSN
- 1544-9173 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-7885
- PMC
- PMC9629646
- OpenAlex
- W4307001986
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 134
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 11
- FWCI
- 4.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- new_version (2022-11-02)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- Bern Open Repository and Information System (University of Bern) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- ETH Zürich Research Collection
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (310030_179254)
- Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (Core funding)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Epigenetics and DNA Methylation
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Keywords
- rearing conditions, inbred mouse strains, C57BL/6J mice, phenotypic plasticity, gut microbiota, body weight, behavioral phenotypes, nucleosome assembly, neuronal differentiation, synaptic plasticity, gene-environment interaction, replicability
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Chromatin, Environment, Genotype, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Phenotype, Mice
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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