Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gut microbiomes in primates: Effects of environment and population history

“肠道微生物组”是栖息在动物胃肠道中的复杂微生物群落，对宿主的生存起着至关重要的作用。大多数关于肠道微生物组的研究都集中在人类和啮齿动物模型上。本博士论文项目通过研究非人类灵长类动物的肠道微生物组特征，以更广泛的比较视角，更好地了解微生物组在物种、饮食和栖息地之间的变化。除了为了解人类健康提供新的、相关的动物模型外，这项多物种研究将提供有关宿主生态和进化相关的灵长类动物-微生物组关系的基础知识，并将为改善濒危物种管理的畜牧业实践提供信息。这项研究的结果将通过发表在同行评审的期刊上与科学界分享，具体的保护组织，如世界自然保护联盟灵长类专家小组和杜克狐猴中心，并通过致力于教育科学推广与公众分享。该项目还将为本科生提供实地和实验室方法、生物信息学和统计分析以及数据传播方面的培训。对于食叶灵长类动物来说，肠道微生物群的一个关键作用是将摄入的植物纤维转化为必需的营养物质。事实上，食性灵长类动物57%以上的日常能量需求是由微生物合成的化合物来满足的。然而，由于缺乏可用的比较数据，我们对宿主生态和进化对灵长类肠道微生物组的影响的理解仍然有限。为了提高比较能力，联合pi的论文研究重点是多种狐猴物种肠道微生物群的结构和功能，这些物种在亲缘关系、饮食中树叶的比例、栖息的森林类型以及它们的濒危程度等方面各不相同。研究人员将对生活在马达加斯加西北部的两个野生科克雷狐猴种群和北卡罗来纳州杜克狐猴中心的圈养种群的肠道微生物群进行研究。结合两种强大的基因测序方法，分别确定微生物成员和代谢功能，该项目有三个具体目标：(1)几种野生灵长类动物物种的系统发育比较，(2)确定宿主物种种群间规范的肠道微生物组变异，以及(3)调查圈养对狐猴肠道微生物组的影响。最终，这项研究将提高对folivate肠道微生物组脆弱性的理解，并提供对灵长类动物营养的见解，具有潜在的应用于灵长类动物饲养和人类医疗保健。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。

The 'gut microbiome' is the complex community of microorganisms that inhabits animal gastrointestinal tracts and performs functions vital to host survival. Most research on the gut microbiome has focused on human and rodent models. This doctoral dissertation project takes a broader, comparative perspective by examining gut microbiome characteristics in non-human primates, to better understand microbiome variation across species, diets, and habitats. Beyond providing new, relevant animal models for understanding human health, this multi-species research will provide fundamental knowledge about primate-microbiome relationships relative to host ecology and evolution, and will inform husbandry practices for improving the management of endangered species. The results of this study will be shared with the scientific community via publication in peer-reviewed journals, specific conservation organizations, such as the IUCN Primate Specialist Group, and the Duke Lemur Center, and with the general public via commitment to educational science outreach. The project will also provide training for undergraduate students in field and laboratory methods, bioinformatics and statistical analysis, and data dissemination. For leaf-eating primates, one critical role of the gut microbiome is to convert ingested plant fiber into essential nutrients. Indeed, upwards of 57% of daily energy demands in folivorous primates are met by microbially-synthesized compounds. Yet, our understanding of the influence of host ecology and evolution on the primate gut microbiome remains limited, as there is a paucity of available comparative data. To boost comparative power, the co-PI's dissertation research is focused on the structure and function of the gut microbiome in multiple lemur species that vary in relatedness, the proportion of foliage in their diets, the type of forest they inhabit, and their endangerment. The investigators will explore gut microbiomes in two wild populations of Coquerel's sifakas living in northwest Madagascar, and the captive population housed at the Duke Lemur Center in NC. Combining two methods of powerful genetic sequencing, that respectively determine microbial membership and metabolic function, this project address three specific aims: (1) a phylogenetic comparison across several wild primate species, (2) determination of normative gut microbiome variation across populations of a host species, and (3) investigation of the effects of captivity on sifaka gut microbiome. Ultimately, this study will improve understanding of the fragility of the folivore gut microbiome and offer insight into primate nutrition, with potential applications to primate husbandry and human healthcare.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.