Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Food and Water on Movement and Gut Microbiome Diversity

博士论文研究：食物和水对运动和肠道微生物多样性的影响

• 批准号: 2051465
• 负责人: Jason Kamilar
• 金额: $ 1.8万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-01 至 2025-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2051465&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Effects; Food

Nonhuman primates employ different strategies to locate resources such as food and water that support survival and reproduction. This doctoral dissertation research project examines how wild Kinda baboons’ movement strategies vary according to the distribution of resources in complex environments, and how their dietary choices affect the distribution of bacteria in their guts. Results from the study will provide important insights linking evolutionary strategies to search for foodstuffs to physiological outcomes in a social primate. While conducting the work, the doctoral student will participate in educational science programs for under-served K-12 students and engage in public science through scientific blogs and social media. Additionally, the project will provide scientific training opportunities for diverse undergraduate students and a U.S.-based graduate student. The research investigates how the distribution of key nutritional resources – food and water – affect how baboons move through their environments. Research suggests that consuming different dietary resources impacts primate gut microbiomes, the microorganisms inhabiting the gut, which, in turn affect primate biology and health. This research uses data drawn from individual baboons residing in natural settings to complement scholarship that is based on environmental and climate proxies rather than direct evidence of nutritional choices. It also adds an explicit focus on water - a critical resource in dry environments and a source of gut bacteria - to understand how diverse dietary choices among individual baboons relate to gut health. The investigators will follow a habituated troop of Kinda baboons to collect behavioral (e.g., diet and movement) and biological (e.g., baboon fecal and water sample) data. Next, they will employ cutting-edge movement ecology analyses (e.g., hidden Markov models) to test different hypotheses related to baboon movement strategies. They will then quantify baboon microbiome diversity and analyze its relationship to water microbiome diversity and pathogen levels (e.g., E. coli and Giardia abundance).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.

非人类私人使用不同的策略来定位支持生存和繁殖的食物和水等资源。这项博士学位论文研究项目考试野生狒狒的运动策略如何根据复杂环境中资源的分布而变化，以及其饮食选择如何影响细菌在其肠道中的分布。该研究的结果将提供重要的见解，将进化策略联系起来，以寻找食物与社会灵长类动物的生理成果。在进行工作时，博士生将参加服务不足的K-12学生的教育科学课程，并通过科学博客和社交媒体参与公共科学。此外，该项目将为潜水员本科生和美国的研究生提供科学培训机会。该研究调查了关键营养资源的分布（食品和水）如何影响狒狒在其环境中的移动方式。研究表明，消费不同的饮食资源会影响灵长类动物的肠道微生物组，即居住在肠道的微生物，这反过来又影响了灵长类动物的生物学和健康。这项研究使用居住在自然环境中的单个狒狒的数据来补充基于环境和气候代理的科学，而不是直接的营养选择证据。它还为水（在干燥环境中的关键资源和肠道细菌的来源）中提出了明确的关注，以了解与肠道健康相关的单个狒狒的多样性选择。研究人员将遵循一个习惯的狒狒部队收集行为（例如饮食和运动）和生物学（例如狒狒粪便和水样）数据。接下来，他们将采用尖端运动生态分析（例如，隐藏的马尔可夫模型）来测试与狒狒运动策略相关的不同假设。然后，他们将量化狒狒微生物组的多样性，并分析其与水微生物组多样性和病原体水平的关系（例如，大肠杆菌和贾第鞭毛虫抽象的摘要）。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准来通过评估来获得的支持。