Doctoral Dissertation Research: Effects of the Social Environment on DNA Methylation and Immune Function in Primates

博士论文研究：社会环境对灵长类动物DNA甲基化和免疫功能的影响

• 批准号: 1455808
• 负责人: Jenny Tung
• 金额: $ 3.17万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-03-15 至 2017-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1455808&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Effects; Social

Many primates, including humans, live in complex social environments, and the capacity to deal with such environments can vary substantially across individuals. While some individuals form stable, positive social bonds, others do not; similarly, individuals vary in their achieved social status. Research in both humans and non-human primates suggests that variation in these social experiences can have profound effects on physiology, health, and survival. This project uses behavioral and biological data from wild baboons to test the hypothesis that social adversity influences health-related traits by altering the way that genes are expressed. Identifying these connections is crucial for understanding the evolution of primate sociality, and for addressing the well-documented health consequences of social adversity in humans. Other broader impacts of the project include fostering of research collaborations, undergraduate training, and dissemination of novel methods for genomic studies. This two-year project will study 88 adult male baboons from the Amboseli, Kenya baboon population, to investigate whether low social status and/or social isolation lead to changes in DNA methylation, and whether these changes predict how individuals respond to an immune challenge. To do so, investigators will combine behavioral data with measurements of genome-wide DNA methylation levels and immune-related gene expression patterns. The resulting data will shed new light on whether, and to what degree, social experiences influence immunological traits that likely contribute to health and survival in wild primates.

许多灵长类动物，包括人类，生活在复杂的社会环境中，处理这种环境的能力在个体之间可能存在很大差异。虽然有些人形成稳定的，积极的社会关系，其他人没有;同样，个人在他们实现的社会地位不同。对人类和非人类灵长类动物的研究表明，这些社会经验的变化可能对生理，健康和生存产生深远的影响。该项目使用野生狒狒的行为和生物学数据来验证社会逆境通过改变基因表达方式来影响健康相关特征的假设。识别这些联系对于理解灵长类动物社会性的进化以及解决人类社会逆境的健康后果至关重要。该项目的其他更广泛的影响包括促进研究合作，本科生培训和传播基因组研究的新方法。这个为期两年的项目将研究来自肯尼亚狒狒种群Amboseli的88只成年雄性狒狒，以调查低社会地位和/或社会孤立是否会导致DNA甲基化的变化，以及这些变化是否预测个体如何应对免疫挑战。为此，研究人员将联合收割机行为数据与全基因组DNA甲基化水平和免疫相关基因表达模式的测量相结合。由此产生的数据将揭示社会经验是否以及在多大程度上影响可能有助于野生灵长类动物健康和生存的免疫特征。