Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Food and Water on Movement and Gut Microbiome Diversity

博士论文研究：食物和水对运动和肠道微生物多样性的影响

• 批准号: 2051465
• 负责人: Jason Kamilar
• 金额: $ 1.8万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-01 至 2025-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2051465&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Effects; Food

Nonhuman primates employ different strategies to locate resources such as food and water that support survival and reproduction. This doctoral dissertation research project examines how wild Kinda baboons’ movement strategies vary according to the distribution of resources in complex environments, and how their dietary choices affect the distribution of bacteria in their guts. Results from the study will provide important insights linking evolutionary strategies to search for foodstuffs to physiological outcomes in a social primate. While conducting the work, the doctoral student will participate in educational science programs for under-served K-12 students and engage in public science through scientific blogs and social media. Additionally, the project will provide scientific training opportunities for diverse undergraduate students and a U.S.-based graduate student. The research investigates how the distribution of key nutritional resources – food and water – affect how baboons move through their environments. Research suggests that consuming different dietary resources impacts primate gut microbiomes, the microorganisms inhabiting the gut, which, in turn affect primate biology and health. This research uses data drawn from individual baboons residing in natural settings to complement scholarship that is based on environmental and climate proxies rather than direct evidence of nutritional choices. It also adds an explicit focus on water - a critical resource in dry environments and a source of gut bacteria - to understand how diverse dietary choices among individual baboons relate to gut health. The investigators will follow a habituated troop of Kinda baboons to collect behavioral (e.g., diet and movement) and biological (e.g., baboon fecal and water sample) data. Next, they will employ cutting-edge movement ecology analyses (e.g., hidden Markov models) to test different hypotheses related to baboon movement strategies. They will then quantify baboon microbiome diversity and analyze its relationship to water microbiome diversity and pathogen levels (e.g., E. coli and Giardia abundance).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.

非人类灵长类动物采用不同的策略来定位支持生存和繁殖的食物和水等资源。本博士论文研究项目考察了野生狒狒在复杂环境中如何根据资源分布而改变运动策略，以及它们的饮食选择如何影响肠道中细菌的分布。这项研究的结果将为社会性灵长类动物寻找食物的进化策略与生理结果之间的联系提供重要的见解。在进行这项工作的同时，博士生将参与教育科学项目，为缺乏服务的K-12学生提供服务，并通过科学博客和社交媒体参与公共科学。此外，该项目将为不同的本科生和一名在美国的研究生提供科学培训机会。这项研究调查了关键营养资源——食物和水——的分布如何影响狒狒在环境中移动的方式。研究表明，消耗不同的饮食资源会影响灵长类动物的肠道微生物群，即肠道中的微生物，从而影响灵长类动物的生物学和健康。这项研究使用的数据来自生活在自然环境中的狒狒个体，以补充基于环境和气候代理的学术研究，而不是营养选择的直接证据。它还增加了对水的明确关注-干燥环境中的关键资源和肠道细菌的来源-以了解个体狒狒的不同饮食选择与肠道健康之间的关系。研究人员将跟踪一群习惯的狒狒，收集行为（如饮食和运动）和生物学（如狒狒粪便和水样）数据。接下来，他们将采用前沿的运动生态学分析（例如，隐马尔可夫模型）来测试与狒狒运动策略相关的不同假设。然后，他们将量化狒狒微生物组多样性，并分析其与水中微生物组多样性和病原体水平（例如，大肠杆菌和贾第鞭毛虫丰度）的关系。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。