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

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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.