Doctoral Dissertation Research: Nutritional ontogeny and development of the microbiome in primates

婴儿和少年灵长类动物必须在一个复杂的营养世界中航行，甚至在它们完全发展出成年所使用的机械、行为、生理和微生物适应能力之前。食叶性物种依赖于高纤维食物(如树叶)，面临着特别具有挑战性的营养环境，需要专门的战略和适应。这些适应包括一个共生的胃肠道微生物群，它在分解和获取高纤维食物中的营养方面发挥着核心作用。这一博士论文项目将调查微生物组在食叶灵长类幼体生长和发育过程中的营养策略中的作用，促进对灵长类微生物组、营养和生活史适应的了解。该项目将支持学生在STEM研究、若干跨机构和国际合作、社区科学和保护推广方面的培训和指导。调查人员将把重点放在大猩猩身上，因为它们在极端生态中占据着独特的营养生态位；它们生活在高海拔地区，高能食物来源(如成熟水果)的可获得性非常有限。作为一种专业的叶书，它们是测试营养发育和生活史之间关系的有用模型。项目目标将涉及1)婴儿和青少年山地大猩猩的营养摄取和喂养策略；2)婴儿和青少年胃肠道微生物群的动态；以及3)微生物群作为营养策略的功能贡献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Infant and juvenile primates must navigate a complex nutritional world, even before they have fully developed the mechanical, behavioral, physiological, and microbial adaptations used by adults. Folivorous species, which rely on diets high in fibrous foods like leaves, face an especially challenging nutritional environment requiring specialized strategies and adaptations. These adaptations include a symbiotic gastrointestinal microbiome, which plays a central role in the breakdown and capture of nutrients from high-fiber foods. This doctoral dissertation project will investigate the role of the microbiome in the nutritional strategy of a folivorous primate during juvenile growth and development, advancing knowledge about the primate microbiome, nutrition and life history adaptations. The project will support student training and mentoring in STEM research, several cross-institutional and international collaborations, community science and conservation outreach. Investigators will focus on Gorilla beringei, as they occupy a unique nutritional niche in an extreme ecology; they live at high altitudes with very limited availability of high-energy food sources (e.g. ripe fruit). As a specialist folivore, they are a useful model for testing the relationship between nutritional development and life history. Project aims will address 1) the nutritional intake and feeding strategies of infant and juvenile mountain gorillas; 2) the dynamics of the gastrointestinal microbiome in infants and juveniles; and 3) the functional contribution of the microbiome as a nutritional strategy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.