Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of the Gut Microbiome in Digestion and Energy Production in Wild Primates Across a Shifting Nutritional Landscape

对微生物组的研究表明，肠道微生物群落可以影响宿主获取能量和储存脂肪的能力。然而，肠道微生物群可塑性的重要性及其与宿主生存的相关性在面临环境波动时的营养有效性尚不清楚。本博士论文研究使用进化和生态学方法来研究野生灵长类动物肠道微生物群的变化，这些变化应对森林水果生产的极端变异性，导致热量摄入的大幅波动和可供食用的食物类型的重大变化。这项研究促进了对灵长类微生物组适应的认识，也可能为研究古人类谱系和现代人类微生物组功能的适应提供比较数据。该项目促进女性和第一代学生完成博士学位，并为STEM研究中代表性不足的群体的学生提供实地、实验室和生物信息学培训。该项目还通过培训讲习班和合作提高研究地点的研究能力。红毛猩猩能够应对由环境引起的饮食变化，比如热量摄入减少了48%，一年中有好几个月能量需求不足。由于肠道微生物群有可能在水果稀缺期间成为猩猩能量消耗的强大驱动因素，因此本研究调查了肠道微生物群落组成是否会随着营养摄入的显着波动而变化，以及这些变化是否会导致能量收获和微生物能量产生的增加。更具体地说，该项目(1)监测水果供应的环境变化；(2)通过观察来估计食物摄入量，并将摄入量与已知的营养价值相匹配；(3)利用下一代DNA测序技术从粪便样本中鉴定肠道微生物组成；(4)通过测量粪便样品中的短链脂肪酸浓度来近似计算微生物的能量产生。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。

Studies of the microbiome have shown that gut microbe communities can affect a host’s ability to harvest energy and store fat. However, the significance of gut microbiome plasticity and its relevance to host survival when faced with environmental fluctuations in nutrient availability remains unclear. This doctoral dissertation research uses evolutionary and ecological approaches to examine gut microbiota changes in wild primates that cope with extreme variability in forest fruit production, resulting in substantial fluctuations in caloric intake and major shifts in the types of foods available for consumption. This study advances knowledge about primate microbiome adaptations, which may also provide comparative data for examining adaptations in the hominin lineage and microbiome function in modern humans. The project facilitates doctoral degree completion for a woman and first-generation student and provide field, laboratory, and bioinformatics training for students from groups underrepresented in STEM research. The project also enhance research capacity at the research location through training workshops and collaboration. Orangutans cope with environmentally-induced variations in diet, such as reductions in caloric intake by up to 48%, and fall short of their energetic requirements for several months out of the year. Because gut microbiota have the potential to be powerful drivers of orangutan energetics during periods of fruit scarcity, this study investigates whether gut microbial community compositions change across marked fluctuations in nutritional intake, and also whether those changes result in increased energy harvest and microbial energy production. More specifically, this project (1) monitors environmental changes in fruit availability; (2) uses observations to estimate food intake and match intake with known nutritional values; (3) identifies gut microbial compositions from fecal samples using Next-Generation DNA sequencing; and (4) approximates microbial energy production by measuring short-chain fatty acid concentrations in fecal samples.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.