Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assessing weight-gain tendencies in a non-human primates

白色脂肪组织（WAT）参与能量（脂肪）储存和相关的代谢紊乱（如肥胖）。与其他灵长类动物相比，人类的高WAT水平被解释为对人类祖先经常面临的食物短缺的适应。这个概念是人体适应短缺的核心思想，因此人类进化倾向于以脂肪的形式储存能量（节俭的基因型和节俭的表现型假设）。根据这一观点，目前的肥胖流行是由于过去食物匮乏的环境与当今世界许多地方食物丰富的不匹配造成的。如果这个想法是正确的，那么肥胖倾向的特征应该是在人类身上发现的，而不是在其他灵长类动物身上。然而，很少有数据表明其他非人类灵长类动物是否具有这种特征。如果这一特征在其他非人类灵长类动物中也存在，这将表明高WAT水平是一种古老的进化特征，而不是最近对稀缺性的适应。这个博士论文项目通过研究饮食变化如何影响人类和狒狒的身体组成来解决这个问题。这项研究包括各种推广活动，并与类人猿心脏项目合作，该项目由一组专家组成，帮助了解和治疗类人猿物种的心脏病。为了评估人类的肥胖倾向是否与其他灵长类动物共有，研究人员：(1)研究人类饮食组成与饮食生物标志物之间的关系；(2)评估吃低纤维高脂肪高糖饮食的狒狒（Papio anubis）的身体成分和骨密度，(3)使用DiceCT扫描比较不同物种之间的脂肪沉积和瘦体重。该研究揭示了灵长类动物身体组成可塑性的变化，为人类和非人类灵长类动物肥胖的进化史提供了见解。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。

White adipose tissue (WAT) is involved in energy (fat) storage and related metabolic disorders (e.g., obesity). The high level of WAT in humans, as compared to other primates, is interpreted as an adaptation to the assumed frequent dietary scarcity faced by our hominin ancestors. This concept is central to the idea that human bodies are adapted to face scarcity, and thus that humans are evolutionary predisposed to store energy in the form of fat (the thrifty-genotype and thrifty-phenotype hypotheses). The current obesity epidemic, according to this idea, results from a mismatch between a past environment of scarcity and the contemporary dietary abundance that is found in many places around the globe. If this idea is correct, the obese-tendency trait should be found in humans but not in other primates. However, very few data exist to indicate whether or not other non-human primates present this characteristic. If this trait is present in other non-human primates, it would suggest that a high WAT level is an ancient evolutionary trait and not a recent adaptation to scarcity. This doctoral dissertation project addresses this question by investigating how dietary changes affect body composition in humans and baboons. The study includes a variety of outreach activities, and collaborations with the Great Ape Heart project, which is constituted by a group of experts that aid in understanding and treating cardiac disease in great ape species.To assess whether the obesity-prone tendency of humans is a trait shared with other primates, the researchers: (1) examine how dietary composition correlates with dietary biomarkers in humans; (2) assess body composition and bone mineral density in baboons (Papio anubis) that ate a low fiber but high fat and sugar diet, and (3) compare adipose deposits and lean body mass between species using DiceCT scans. The study informs about the variation in the plasticity of body composition across primate species, providing insights into the evolutionary history of human and non-human primate adiposity.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.