Primate gut microbiomes in relationship to behavioral traits

肠道微生物组由栖息在消化道中的微生物组成，包括细菌、病毒等。肠道微生物组如何在生命早期建立，是什么导致它在整个生命过程中发生变化，以及它如何影响生物学，健康和行为，这些都是许多研究领域非常感兴趣的话题。对人类和动物的研究支持这些微生物对行为的影响，但我们对野生非人类灵长类动物的这种关系知之甚少。通过了解肠道微生物组的产物与行为之间的联系，以及这些在高度社会化物种中的个体之间如何变化，这项研究为研究人类的这些联系提供了洞察力和比较背景。该项目为本科生和研究生以及一名博士后研究员提供培训和研究机会，使学龄儿童有受教育的机会，并使当地研究人员参与项目活动。肠道微生物多样性的变化与记忆力差和抑郁症有关，而特定微生物（如乳酸杆菌）的相对数量与情绪和行为变化有关。这项先前的工作表明，可以生物合成和/或代谢神经递质（如血清素）的肠道微生物与携带这些微生物的宿主的行为有关。虽然这些证据来自人类和实验室动物研究，但我们对自然栖息地中野生动物种群的这些关系知之甚少。这项研究解决了野生和社会性非人类灵长类动物的几个问题，包括：1）肠道微生物组多样性与行为特征相关吗？2)某些微生物功能基因与行为性状相关吗？3)肠道微生物组多样性与个体优势等级之间的关系是什么？社交网络是否与肠道微生物组多样性的个体间变异相关？研究小组分析了行为和粪便样本来解决这些问题。行为数据用于量化个体的行为特征以及群体的新兴社会网络，肠道微生物组通过使用16 S rRNA基因对粪便样本进行基因组测序来量化微生物的分类多样性。通过鸟枪法宏基因组测序定量微生物的功能基因。一套全面的生物信息学和统计学方法被用于检查这些数据集之间的潜在关系，并为未来在其他物种（包括人类）中的研究提供信息。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。

The gut microbiome is comprised of the microorganisms that inhabit digestive tracts, including bacteria, viruses, and others. How the gut microbiome is established early in life, what causes it to change throughout life, and how it influences biology, health and behavior are topics of great interest across many realms of research. Studies on humans and animals support the influence of these microorganisms on behavior, but we have little knowledge of this relationship in wild nonhuman primates. By understanding links between products of the gut microbiome and behaviors, and how these vary across individuals in highly social species, this research provides insight and comparative context for investigating these links in humans. The project provides training and research opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students, and a postdoctoral researcher, engages school-aged children with educational opportunities, and integrates local researchers into the project’s activities. Variation in gut microbial diversity has been connected to poor memory and depression, and the relative amounts of specific microbes, such as Lactobacillus, has been associated with mood and behavioral variation. This previous work has shown that gut microbes that can biosynthesize and/or metabolize neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, are associated with the behavior of the host who harbors those microbes. While this evidence has been generated from human and lab animal studies, we have little knowledge of these relationships in wild animal populations in their natural habitats. This study addresses several questions in a wild and social nonhuman primate, including: 1) Is gut microbiome diversity associated with behavioral traits? 2) Are certain microbial functional genes associated with behavioral traits? 3) What is the association between gut microbiome diversity and individual dominance rank? and 4) Are social networks associated with inter-individual variation in gut microbiome diversity? The research team analyzes behavioral and fecal samples to address these questions. Behavioral data are used to quantify the behavioral traits of individuals as well as the emergent social network of the groups, and gut microbiomes are quantified through genomic sequencing of fecal samples using the 16S rRNA gene to quantify the taxonomic diversity of microbes. Functional genes of the microbes are quantified via shotgun metagenomic sequencing. A comprehensive set of bioinformatic and statistical methods are used to examine the potential relationships among these datasets, and to inform future studies in other species including humans.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.