Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Anthropology Theses and Dissertations by Author "Christie, Diana"

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    Microbes, Mothers, and Others: Allocare and Socially-Mediated Gut Microbiome Transmission Across the Colobus vellerosus Lifespan
    (University of Oregon, 2024-03-25) Christie, Diana; Ting, Nelson
    In this dissertation, I investigate relationships between gut microbiome variation and social interactions in a natural population of black and white colobus monkey (Colobus vellerosus) at Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, Ghana. This species displays high levels of allocare, which varies across infants and increases infant contact with non-maternal adults, thus presenting an excellent opportunity to examine the role of early life social contact on the developing gut microbiome. Allocare following infant birth also changes adult social dynamics, providing a natural experiment for investigating the effects of longitudinal social change on gut microbiome variation. Thus, in studying social behavior and gut microbial variation in this species, I address gaps in knowledge related to the impact of social interactions on microbiome assembly early in life as well as how changes in social environment affect microbiome plasticity.In Chapter I, I introduce the importance of the gut microbiome, factors shaping its variation, and Colobus vellerosus as a model to better understand this topic. In Chapter II, I characterize the developing colobus gut microbiome and examine how adult social partners shape it. I found that shared social group was predictive of infant-adult microbial similarity and allocare behaviors by adults likely transmitted microbes to infants. However, I was unable to pinpoint dyadic transmission of microbes between infants and adult social partners. In Chapter III, I explore the relationship between social shifts and gut microbiome plasticity. I found that grooming increased among adult females after infant birth, which coincided with an increase in adult female gut microbial similarity. While I was unable to tie this increased microbial similarity to social relationships on very short (3-month) time scales, shorter time periods than typically used (6-month) did predict microbial similarity. In Chapter IV, I provide implications for this work, including the importance of adult social partners seeding the developing colobus gut microbiome, the underappreciated role of microbial transmission to the evolution of allocare, and how relatively short-lived changes in social relationships may cause microbial shifts in adulthood. This dissertation expands our understanding of the social factors shaping the gut microbiome, particularly in cooperatively breeding species. This dissertation includes previously unpublished co-authored material.