Gut Microbiome of 311 Wild Deer Mice Across New Mexico

Andrew M. Skidmore characterized the fecal microbiomes of 311 Peromyscus sonoriensis (western deer mice) collected from across New Mexico, USA. The dataset includes mice of all ages and sexes from multiple ecoregions, with microbiome diversity analyzed using Shannon entropy, Faith phylodiversity, and weighted UNIFRAC. It was last updated on 2026-04-24.

Use Cases

• Modeling microbiome variation based on geographic location, as trapping location was the primary significant factor.
• Comparing microbial community differences based on host age and sex within specific collection locations.
• Assessing the impact of sample preservation methods (95% ethanol vs. cryopreservation) on microbiome characterization.
• Identifying differentially abundant bacterial families across mouse groups using statistical methods like ANCOMBC.

Strengths

• Includes 311 individual mouse samples, providing a substantial sample size for analysis.
• Geographically diverse collection across multiple ecoregions in New Mexico.
• Covers a complete demographic range, including mice of all ages and sexes.
• Uses a PCR-independent approach to sequence the entire 16S rRNA gene.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset is small at 43.4 KB, indicating limited scope or highly summarized data.

Provenance

Source

Andrew M. Skidmore via figshare.

Collection Method

Fecal samples sequenced for the 16S rRNA gene, with diversity metrics calculated from the results.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-24 05:40:55; freshness should be verified.

Geography

New Mexico, USA, across multiple ecoregions.