DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The role of the gut microbiome in individual specialization and population-level niche partitioning

论文研究：肠道微生物组在个体专业化和群体水平生态位划分中的作用

• 批准号: 1601804
• 负责人: Jacob Goheen
• 金额: $ 1.87万
• 依托单位: University of Wyoming
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-05-01 至 2017-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1601804&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; role; gut; microbiome

Wildlife affect society in positive and negative ways. For example, moose have economic and cultural value for hunters and for tourists, but overabundant populations of moose can destroy crops and endanger motorists. This project will examine how food availability affects moose population growth and decline and advance general understanding of the number of animals an area can support. Results will guide decisions about managing endangered, overabundant, and alien species. The researchers will work with state and local agencies in Wyoming to develop programs to monitor wildlife habitat and nutritional conditions. Results will be communicated to the public in partnership with the Wildlife Migration Initiative. The project will both advance training of an early career researcher and produce new tools to estimate food limitation for wildlife populations. These tools will be available to state management agencies throughout Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Washington. This project will characterize diet and the digestive physiology of moose across eight populations experiencing different levels of plant abundance. Investigators will measure abundance of forage plants along with levels of body fat and reproduction, which indicate how much forage is available. Fecal samples from each population will be used to quantify diet. DNA analyses of feces will identify individual moose and their gender. Measures of plant availability, body fat, reproduction and diet will demonstrate if moose adjust their diets when particular plants becomes scarce. Moose and other large herbivores are ruminants, relying on highly specialized guts that cultivate microbes to digest plant fibers and toxins that other animals cannot. The ability of moose to shift their diets when food becomes scarce may depend on the ability of their gut microbes to accommodate new diets. The alternate hypothesis that will be tested is that moose diets and their gut microbes are inherited and are resistant to changes in food availability. To answer these questions, microbial DNA found in feces will be used to quantify the relationship between gut microbes, the genetic relatedness of individual moose, and moose diets. Results of this project will advance understanding of how food supply drives population increase or decline.

野生动植物以积极和消极的方式影响社会。例如，驼鹿对猎人和游客具有经济和文化价值，但是驼鹿过多的种群可以破坏农作物和危害驾驶者。该项目将研究粮食可用性如何影响驼鹿人口的增长和衰落，并提高对区域可以支持的动物数量的一般了解。结果将指导有关管理濒临灭绝，过多和外星物种的决策。研究人员将与怀俄明州的州和地方机构合作，开发监测野生动植物栖息地和营养状况的计划。结果将与野生动植物迁移计划合作传达给公众。该项目既可以提高早期职业研究人员的培训，又要生产新的工具来估计野生动植物种群的食品限制。这些工具将用于整个怀俄明州，蒙大拿州，科罗拉多州，爱达荷州，犹他州和华盛顿的州管理机构。该项目将在八个人群中饮食和驼鹿的消化生理学来表征，植物丰度不同。研究人员将测量大量饲料植物以及体内脂肪和繁殖水平，这表明有多少饲料可用。来自每个人群的粪便样本将用于量化饮食。 粪便的DNA分析将识别单个驼鹿及其性别。植物可用性，体内脂肪，繁殖和饮食的度量将证明驼鹿在特定植物稀缺时是否调整饮食。驼鹿和其他大型草食动物是反刍动物，依靠高度专业的胆量来培养微生物来消化其他动物所无法的植物纤维和毒素。驼鹿在食物变得稀缺时转移饮食的能力可能取决于其肠道微生物适应新饮食的能力。将要检验的替代假设是，驼鹿饮食及其肠道微生物是遗传的，并且对食物可用性的变化具有抵抗力。为了回答这些问题，粪便中发现的微生物DNA将用于量化肠道微生物之间的关系，单个驼鹿的遗传相关性和驼鹿饮食。该项目的结果将促进人们对粮食供应的理解，使人口增加或下降。