Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: From Diet to Tissue: Compound Specific Isotopic Routing in Chimpanzees

在原始人血统的最后300万年内发生的进化过程与饮食密切相关。据推测，饮食因素在南方古猿、拟人猿和早期人之间的生态位分配中发挥了关键作用，包括种子、块茎、成熟或未成熟的水果、髓和动物肉的不同贡献。然而，目前的方法缺乏必要的解决办法来区分这些物品在化石物种中的饮食贡献。同位素方法代表了一种方法，具有定量估计特定饮食生态位内个别食品的贡献的潜力。由于生物体的组织是由从环境中摄取的饮食成分构成的，个体的同位素组成反映了这些输入。然而，要解释与个体饮食相关的组织水平同位素变化，必须了解生活环境中潜在的同位素变化。该项目的目标是利用单个氨基酸的复合特定同位素分析来揭示黑猩猩饮食中的同位素变异性是如何被消耗、代谢和沉积在硬组织中的。这个项目融合了灵长类动物学、生物地球化学和营养学的元素，将研究环境中氨基酸delta13C和delta15N的变异性，以及随后在乌干达Kibale国家森林中现代黑猩猩从饮食到毛发、骨骼和牙齿的生理路线。智力价值：这些分析代表了一种新的和重要的方法，以改善我们对现代东非C3生态系统和黑猩猩生理学中的同位素变异性的理解。此外，它们将为从我们最早的原始人祖先的化石遗骸中高分辨率重建饮食提供必要的基础。更广泛的影响：能够量化过去的消费，从而阐明食物在人类进化过程中的作用，对于做出明智的决定，决定人类未来应该如何健康、可持续和合乎道德地消费，至关重要。本研究将为研究生的博士论文和学术训练做出贡献。

Evolutionary processes occurring within the last 3 million years of the hominin lineage have been intimately associated with diet. Dietary factors hypothesized to have played critical roles in the niche partitioning between australopithecines, paranthropines, and early Homo include variable contributions of seeds, tubers, ripe or unripe fruit, pith, and animal flesh. Current approaches, however, lack the necessary resolution for differentiating the dietary contribution of these items within fossil species. Isotopic approaches represent one methodology with the potential of quantitatively estimating the contribution of individual food stuffs within a given dietary niche. As the tissues of an organism are constructed from dietary components ingested from the environment, the isotopic composition of the individual reflect these inputs. However, to interpret tissue level isotopic variation in relation to individual diet, one must understand the underlying isotopic variability within the lived environment. The goal of this project is to utilize compound specific isotopic analyses of individual amino acids to reveal how isotopic variability within the diet of chimpanzees is consumed, metabolized, and deposited within the hard tissues. Incorporating elements of primatology, biogeochemistry, and nutritional science this project will examine amino acid delta13C and delta15N variability within the environment and the subsequent physiological routing from diet to hair, bone and teeth of modern chimpanzees in Kibale National Forest, Uganda. Intellectual merit: These analyses represent a novel and significant approach to improve our understanding of isotopic variability within modern East African C3 ecosystems and chimpanzee physiology. Additionally, they will provide the groundwork necessary for high-resolution dietary reconstruction from fossil remains of our earliest hominin ancestors. Broader impacts: The ability to quantify past consumption and thereby elucidate the role of foods over the course of human evolution is critically important for making informed decisions about how humans should healthfully, sustainably, and ethically consume into the future. This research will contribute to the doctoral dissertation and academic training of a graduate student.