ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of Gut Microbiota in Mediating the Physiological and Pathological Effects of Pollutant Exposure in Aquatic AnimalsView all articles
Differential Gut Microbiome Composition in Three-Spined Stickleback Populations with Contrasting Levels of Mercury Accumulation
Provisionally accepted
Marijn Kuizenga1*
Aruna M Shankregowda1,2
Prabhugouda Siriyappagouder3
Vyshal Delahaut4
Federico C F Calboli5,6
Lieven Bervoets4
Brijesh Singh Yadav1
Filip Volckaert6
Gudrun De Boeck4
Joost Raeymaekers3*- 1Nord University, Bodø, Norway
- 2Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom
- 3Nord universitet, Bodø, Norway
- 4Universiteit Antwerpen Onderzoeksgroep ECOSPHERE, Wilrijk, Belgium
- 5Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Helsinki, Finland
- 6Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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Environmental micropollutants and other anthropogenic xenobiotics are potential drivers behind compositional shifts and functional dysregulation of gut microbial communities. Mercury and many of its compounds are highly toxic and ubiquitous environmental pollutants that pose a risk for aquatic biota and humans. Here we compared the gut microbial communities of natural three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus, 1758) populations in Flanders, Belgium, with contrasting muscle mercury concentrations. We hypothesized that exposure to a high mercury load selects for gut flora species with the capacity to tolerate or adapt to this stressor and, thus, lead to a change in the composition of the gut microbiota. The gut microbiota of 128 host individuals from four populations with low levels of accumulated mercury and four populations with high mercury levels were characterized using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Microbial community composition varied significantly between males and females, as well as between host populations with high and low muscle mercury content. While the abundance of 22 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) was associated with the host’s muscle mercury content, we detected no specific indicator species for high mercury. Overall, our results suggest that local factors specific to a host population, potentially including mercury accumulation and sex-specific factors, differentiate the microbial communities inhabiting the gastrointestinal tracts of the three-spined stickleback.
Keywords: Ecotoxicology, gut microbiome, Mercury, microbiota, pollution, river, three-spinedstickleback
Received: 25 Jul 2025; Accepted: 20 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kuizenga, Shankregowda, Siriyappagouder, Delahaut, Calboli, Bervoets, Yadav, Volckaert, De Boeck and Raeymaekers. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Marijn Kuizenga, marijnkuizenga@me.com
Joost Raeymaekers, joost.raeymaekers@nord.no
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