Re-analyzing Peromyscous Specimens from a Gut Microbiome Study to Include Species-specific Analysis
Minnesota is home to two species of native mice: Peromyscus maniculatus (deer mouse) and P. leucopus (white-footed mouse). These two species are difficult to tell apart in the field using standard measurements or external traits; therefore, they are often treated as a single species (Peromyscus sp.) in field and ecological studies. Because of this, we know little about whether these two species differ in key ecological roles, including tolerance for human-modified habitats and disease spread. In this study, we used a new three-primer PCR method to identify mice to the species level. We used 60 samples of mice that had been collected at Itasca Biological Station in northern Minnesota. These mice had been used in a previous study of microbiome diversity across the landscape, but they were not identified to the species level and were analyzed as a single species. Here, we re-analyze these data, taking species identity into account, to assess whether there are differences between P. leucopus and P. maniculatus in microbiome diversity and habitat preference.