Chronic psychosocial crowding stress evoked changes in gut microbiota composition in rats
This dataset comprises raw shotgun metagenomic sequencing data generated to characterize gut microbiome composition in male rats exposed to chronic psychosocial crowding stress (CS; ST samples) compared with unstressed control (CON; CON samples) animals. The study was designed to investigate whether prolonged exposure to CS is associated with alterations in the composition and structure of the gut microbial community. Male rats were assigned to either the chronic crowding stress group or the control group. Animals in the CS group were exposed to a psychosocial crowding procedure for 14 consecutive days, during which they were continuously maintained in conditions of increased population density and competition for access to food and drinking water. CON animals were maintained under standard housing conditions. Following the experimental exposure, fecal samples were collected from individual animals and used as the biological material for gut microbiome analysis. Microbial DNA was isolated from fecal samples and subjected to whole-genome shotgun metagenomic sequencing using next-generation sequencing (NGS). The resulting raw sequencing reads represent the microbial DNA present in individual fecal samples and were deposited in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) for public access. The dataset contains raw, unprocessed sequencing reads and is intended to support independent quality control, read processing, taxonomic classification, functional profiling, and comparative analyses of the gut microbiome. The metagenomic dataset was generated from samples collected from both experimental groups, allowing comparison of gut microbial community composition between chronically stressed and control animals. Downstream analyses performed in the associated study included assessment of microbial community structure and diversity, taxonomic profiling, identification of differentially abundant microbial taxa, and analysis of associations between microbiome composition and behavioral phenotypes. The study identified stress-associated differences in gut microbiome composition, including changes in the relative abundance of members of Lachnospirales, Lachnospiraceae, Tannerellaceae, and Parabacteroides. However, the deposited raw sequencing data are provided independently of these downstream analyses and can be reanalyzed using alternative bioinformatic pipelines and reference databases. These data provide a comprehensive shotgun metagenomic resource for investigating gut microbial community alterations associated with chronic psychosocial stress in a rat model. The dataset may be used to further examine taxonomic and functional features of the gut microbiome and their potential associations with physiological and behavioral consequences of chronic stress.