Age, sex, and mitochondrial-haplotype influence gut microbiome composition and metabolites in a genetically diverse rat model.

We evaluated the impact of sex and mitochondrial-haplotype on the age-related changes in the fecal gut microbiome of the genetically heterogeneous rodent model, the OKC-HET rat. Alpha-diversity, measuring richness and evenness of gut microbiome composition, did not change with age or mitochondrial-haplotype. However, beta-diversity, a measure of microbial differences among samples, was significantly modulated by age in male and female rats in both mitochondrial-haplotypes.