RAPID: Investigating primate infant care via canopy-based research

RAPID：通过基于冠层的研究调查灵长类动物婴儿护理

• 批准号: 2002710
• 负责人: Andrea Baden
• 金额: $ 4.21万
• 依托单位: CUNY Hunter College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-12-15 至 2023-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2002710&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Investigating; primate; infant; care

This RAPID award will support time-sensitive data collection in a wild primate species, to evaluate how an individual’s interactions with their physical and social environments during early infancy and childhood development relate to their long-term patterns of gut microbial diversity. The research will contribute to the growing body of knowledge about complex interactions between early environment, the microbiome, and physiological well-being in primates, including humans. Specifically, the study will combine genetic and behavioral sampling on infant care in the nest and pilot new forest canopy data collection methods for infants, their nests, and their mothers’ complex cooperative infant care strategies, focusing on a recent birth cohort. The project also will build on partnerships with K-12 classroom teachers, primate conservation educators, and developers at Google Expeditions to generate online content, including the creation of lesson plans and virtual reality “expeditions,” that will engage, teach, and train primary and secondary school students from diverse backgrounds in field research in the STEM sciences.A growing body of research shows that interactions between primate hosts and the microbial communities in their gut are complex and beneficial. Hosts, in particular, rely on microorganisms for processes ranging from digestion to immunity. However, despite the critical importance of host-microbe interactions, the factors responsible for their development and maintenance are not well understood. Ruffed lemurs in the wild are characterized by substantial variation in the numbers, types, and strengths of their social relationships, providing an opportunity to study the relative effects of different biological, environmental, and social forces on establishing and maintaining gut microbial diversity. The investigators will therefore use a combination of field observations and nest cams to continuously monitor ruffed lemur infant care behaviors in the nest; tree climbing and canopy-based research to sample infants, their mothers, and their nests for microbiome data; and veterinary health assessments to link social behavior and microbiome development to long-term physiological outcomes.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.

该RAPID奖项将支持野生灵长类物种的时间敏感数据收集，以评估个体在婴儿早期和儿童发育期间与其物理和社会环境的相互作用如何与其肠道微生物多样性的长期模式相关。这项研究将有助于了解包括人类在内的灵长类动物早期环境，微生物组和生理健康之间复杂的相互作用。具体来说，该研究将结合联合收割机的遗传和行为采样婴儿护理在巢和试点新的森林冠层数据收集方法的婴儿，他们的巢，和他们的母亲的复杂的合作婴儿护理策略，重点是最近的出生队列。该项目还将与K-12课堂教师，灵长类动物保护教育工作者和Google Expeditions的开发人员建立合作伙伴关系，以生成在线内容，包括创建课程计划和虚拟现实“探险”，这些内容将参与，教授，并培训来自不同背景的中小学生进行STEM科学的实地研究。越来越多的研究表明，灵长类动物之间的相互作用宿主及其肠道中的微生物群落是复杂而有益的。特别是，肠道依赖微生物进行从消化到免疫的过程。然而，尽管宿主-微生物相互作用至关重要，但对其发展和维持的因素还不清楚。野生皱狐猴的特点是其社会关系的数量，类型和强度的实质性变化，提供了一个机会来研究不同的生物，环境和社会力量对建立和维持肠道微生物多样性的相对影响。因此，研究人员将结合实地观察和巢摄像头来持续监测皱皮狐猴在巢中的婴儿护理行为;爬树和基于树冠的研究对婴儿，他们的母亲和他们的巢进行采样，以获得微生物组数据;和兽医健康评估，将社会行为和微生物组发育与长期该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得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的支持。