Data on ethanol drinking and microbiome in alcohol preferring and non-preferring rats after a fecal microbiota transplant

Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs) constitute a global health crisis with limited effective treatments. Alterations in gut microbiome have been shown to be major contributors to substance use disorder and mental illness. Fecal Microbial Transfer (FMT) is emerging as a promising method for manipulating the Brain-Gut-Microbiome Axis in diverse health and disease states including AUD and has potential as a clinical treatment. The well characterized behavioral genetics of Alcohol Preferring (P) and Non-Preferring (NP) rat model offer valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms of AUD. This data article describes the quantitative results from an experiment on ethanol drinking behaviors and gut microbiome composition in P and NP rats that were administered fecal transfer of the microbiota. The results include data on ethanol consumption and preference of the two groups of animals prior to and following the FMT. Microbiome analysis showed that P rat ethanol-induced dysbiosis involved increased relative abundance of <i>Akkermansia muciniphila</i> and reduced Bacteroidetes and <i>Lactobacillus</i> while the FMT treatment partially restored levels. Gene abundance analysis showed an increase in alcohol metabolizing genes in P rats following three weeks ethanol access, indicating that the gut favors alcohol metabolizers after ethanol intake, which significantly decreased after FMT. These data provide details of the distinct microbial communities found in P and NP rats and the first to report data on detailed composition of the microbiome prior to and following FMT.