AUTHOR=Yi Xianfeng , Cha Muha TITLE=Gut Dysbiosis Has the Potential to Reduce the Sexual Attractiveness of Mouse Female JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.916766 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.916766 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=Increasing evidence has shown that gut microbiome has significant effects on mate preferences of insects; however, whether gut microbiota composition affects sexual attractiveness and mate preference in mammals remains largely unknown. Here, we showed that antibiotic treatment significantly restructured gut microbiota composition of both mouse males and females. Males, regardless of antibiotic treatment, exhibited higher propensity to interact with the control females than the antibiotic-treated females. The data clearly showed that gut microbiota dysbiosis reduced sexual attractiveness of females to males, implying that commensal gut microbiota influences female attractiveness to males. The reduced sexual attractiveness of the antibiotic-treated females may be beneficial to discriminating males by avoiding disorder of immunity and sociability in offspring that acquire maternal gut microbiota via vertical transmission. We suggest further microbiota work should be oriented to increase our understanding of the interactions between gut microbiota dysbiosis, sexual selection and mate choice of wild animals at the population level.