Comparative Primate Microbial Ecology

比较灵长类微生物生态学

• 批准号: 0820709
• 负责人: Rebecca Stumpf
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-15 至 2015-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0820709&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Comparative; Primate; Microbial; Ecology

The primate body hosts trillions of microbes. Interactions between primate hosts and these microbes profoundly affect primate physiology, reproduction, health, survival and ultimately, evolution. Because females are central to population viability and because reproductive tract microbiota directly influence female health, fecundity and pregnancy outcomes, understanding both primate variation in microbial ecologies and what factors influence microbial variation is crucial to understanding patterns of primate host-microbe relations. The goals of this research are to define the microbial community compositions from a select subset of wild primates differing by phylogenetic group, socio-ecology, mating system, and morphology, and to test hypotheses that can explain microbial variation among primates. Specifically, the researchers hypothesize that primate bacterial patterns: 1) vary widely, both within and among species, and 2) co-vary with size, reproductive, taxonomic and social factors. The researchers will apply emerging genomic techniques to analyze, define, and compare both the composition and dynamics of human and nonhuman primate microbial communities. The techniques include culture independent, direct sequencing and analysis of 16S rDNA clone libraries to generate microbial phylogenies that identify the microbes in primate reproductive ecosystems. These phylogenies will illustrate microbial community composition, and will be analyzed in the contexts of primate phylogeny and reproductive and social behavior, both within and among species. Data from this study will produce fundamental information about how microbes affect primates through relationships that range from highly beneficial and codependent to severely pathological. Diverse primate species are included, enabling targeted hypothesis testing, statistical study and insights on causes of microbial community differences among primate species.The analyses in this research will utilize cutting-edge molecular genomic analyses that have not yet received wide notice or application in bioanthropology. The researchers expect comparative microbial data to provide crucial insights into the evolution of primate (including human) sexuality and reproductive health. The broader impact of this transformative research will allow an understanding of human-microbe interactions, both pathological and non-pathological, and will have valuable implications for biomedicine, such as the relationship between pathological microbes and human preterm birth, adverse pregnancy, and chronic, debilitating health problems in women. In addition, improved data on microbial forces that impact reproduction will benefit primate conservation efforts.

灵长类动物体内拥有数万亿微生物。 灵长类动物宿主与这些微生物之间的相互作用深刻影响灵长类动物的生理、繁殖、健康、生存以及最终的进化。由于雌性对于种群生存能力至关重要，而且生殖道微生物群直接影响雌性健康、繁殖力和妊娠结局，因此了解灵长类动物微生物生态的变异以及影响微生物变异的因素对于理解灵长类动物宿主-微生物关系模式至关重要。这项研究的目标是定义野生灵长类动物的微生物群落组成，这些物种在系统发育群、社会生态学、交配系统和形态学方面有所不同，并测试可以解释灵长类动物之间微生物变异的假设。具体来说，研究人员假设灵长类动物的细菌模式：1）在物种内部和物种之间差异很大，2）与体型、繁殖、分类和社会因素共同变化。研究人员将应用新兴的基因组技术来分析、定义和比较人类和非人类灵长类微生物群落的组成和动态。这些技术包括对 16S rDNA 克隆文库进行独立于培养的直接测序和分析，以生成微生物系统发育，从而识别灵长类动物生殖生态系统中的微生物。这些系统发育将说明微生物群落的组成，并将在灵长类系统发育以及物种内部和物种之间的生殖和社会行为的背景下进行分析。这项研究的数据将产生有关微生物如何通过从高度有益和相互依赖到严重病理性关系影响灵长类动物的基本信息。包括不同的灵长类物种，从而能够进行有针对性的假设检验、统计研究和对灵长类物种之间微生物群落差异原因的见解。本研究的分析将利用尚未在生物人类学中得到广泛关注或应用的尖端分子基因组分析。研究人员期望比较微生物数据能够为灵长类动物（包括人类）性行为和生殖健康的进化提供重要见解。这项变革性研究的更广泛影响将使我们能够了解人类与微生物的相互作用，包括病理性和非病理性的相互作用，并将对生物医学产生有价值的影响，例如病理性微生物与人类早产、不良妊娠和女性慢性衰弱健康问题之间的关系。此外，有关影响繁殖的微生物力量的数据的改进将有利于灵长类动物的保护工作。