Comparative Primate Microbial Ecology

灵长类动物体内有数万亿的微生物。 灵长类宿主和这些微生物之间的相互作用深刻地影响着灵长类的生理、生殖、健康、生存和最终的进化。由于女性是人口生存能力的核心，因为生殖道微生物群直接影响女性健康，繁殖力和妊娠结果，了解灵长类动物在微生物生态学中的变化以及影响微生物变异的因素对于了解灵长类动物宿主-微生物关系的模式至关重要。本研究的目标是确定从一个选择的子集的野生灵长类动物不同的系统发育组，社会生态学，交配系统和形态学的微生物群落组成，并测试假设，可以解释灵长类动物之间的微生物变异。具体来说，研究人员假设灵长类动物的细菌模式：1）在物种内部和物种之间差异很大，2）与大小，生殖，分类和社会因素共同变化。研究人员将应用新兴的基因组技术来分析，定义和比较人类和非人类灵长类动物微生物群落的组成和动态。这些技术包括培养独立，直接测序和16S rDNA克隆文库的分析，以产生微生物的同源性，识别灵长类动物生殖生态系统中的微生物。这些繁殖将说明微生物群落的组成，并将在灵长类动物繁殖和生殖和社会行为的背景下进行分析，无论是在物种内和物种之间。这项研究的数据将产生关于微生物如何通过从高度有益和相互依赖到严重病理的关系影响灵长类动物的基本信息。本研究涵盖灵长类动物的多样性，可以有针对性地进行假设检验、统计研究，并深入了解灵长类动物微生物群落差异的原因。本研究的分析将利用生物人类学中尚未得到广泛关注或应用的尖端分子基因组分析。研究人员希望比较微生物数据能够为灵长类动物（包括人类）性行为和生殖健康的进化提供重要的见解。这项变革性研究的更广泛影响将使人们了解人类与微生物的相互作用，包括病理性和非病理性的相互作用，并将对生物医学产生宝贵的影响，例如病理性微生物与人类早产、不良妊娠和慢性疾病之间的关系。，使女性衰弱的健康问题。此外，关于影响繁殖的微生物力量的改进数据将有利于灵长类动物的保护工作。

The primate body hosts trillions of microbes. Interactions between primate hosts and these microbes profoundly affect primate physiology, reproduction, health, survival and ultimately, evolution. Because females are central to population viability and because reproductive tract microbiota directly influence female health, fecundity and pregnancy outcomes, understanding both primate variation in microbial ecologies and what factors influence microbial variation is crucial to understanding patterns of primate host-microbe relations. The goals of this research are to define the microbial community compositions from a select subset of wild primates differing by phylogenetic group, socio-ecology, mating system, and morphology, and to test hypotheses that can explain microbial variation among primates. Specifically, the researchers hypothesize that primate bacterial patterns: 1) vary widely, both within and among species, and 2) co-vary with size, reproductive, taxonomic and social factors. The researchers will apply emerging genomic techniques to analyze, define, and compare both the composition and dynamics of human and nonhuman primate microbial communities. The techniques include culture independent, direct sequencing and analysis of 16S rDNA clone libraries to generate microbial phylogenies that identify the microbes in primate reproductive ecosystems. These phylogenies will illustrate microbial community composition, and will be analyzed in the contexts of primate phylogeny and reproductive and social behavior, both within and among species. Data from this study will produce fundamental information about how microbes affect primates through relationships that range from highly beneficial and codependent to severely pathological. Diverse primate species are included, enabling targeted hypothesis testing, statistical study and insights on causes of microbial community differences among primate species.The analyses in this research will utilize cutting-edge molecular genomic analyses that have not yet received wide notice or application in bioanthropology. The researchers expect comparative microbial data to provide crucial insights into the evolution of primate (including human) sexuality and reproductive health. The broader impact of this transformative research will allow an understanding of human-microbe interactions, both pathological and non-pathological, and will have valuable implications for biomedicine, such as the relationship between pathological microbes and human preterm birth, adverse pregnancy, and chronic, debilitating health problems in women. In addition, improved data on microbial forces that impact reproduction will benefit primate conservation efforts.