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.

非人灵长类动物使用不同的策略来定位支持生存和繁殖的资源，如食物和水。这个博士论文研究项目研究了野生Kinda狒狒的运动策略如何根据复杂环境中的资源分布而变化，以及它们的饮食选择如何影响肠道中细菌的分布。这项研究的结果将提供重要的见解，将搜索食物的进化策略与社会灵长类动物的生理结果联系起来。在进行这项工作的同时，博士生将参加为服务不足的K-12学生提供的教育科学项目，并通过科学博客和社交媒体参与公共科学。此外，该项目还将为不同的本科生和美国大学提供科学培训机会。基础研究生。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的移动。研究表明，食用不同的饮食资源会影响灵长类动物肠道微生物组，即肠道中的微生物，进而影响灵长类动物的生物学和健康。这项研究使用了来自自然环境中的狒狒个体的数据，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。它还明确关注水-干燥环境中的关键资源和肠道细菌的来源-以了解个体狒狒之间的不同饮食选择如何与肠道健康相关。研究人员将跟踪一群习惯性的狒狒，以收集行为（例如，饮食和运动）和生物学（例如，狒狒粪便和水样）数据。接下来，他们将采用尖端的运动生态学分析（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，并分析其与水微生物组多样性和病原体水平的关系（例如，E.该奖项反映了NSF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。