Sociality and the Microbiome: Gut Microbial Convergence with Infant Presence in the Black-and-White Colobus Monkey (Colobus vellerosus)
| dc.contributor.advisor | Ting, Nelson | |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Gallagher, Daphne | |
| dc.contributor.author | Freedman, Emma | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-08-18T15:51:57Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-08-18T15:51:57Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | |
| dc.description | 63 pages | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | While recent studies in wild primate populations have demonstrated that social behavior plays an important role in gut microbial variation, there is limited understanding of how changes in social cohesion affect the composition of the gut microbiome. This study provides a more comprehensive examination of this longitudinal relationship in a natural population of black-and-white colobus monkey (Colobus vellerosus) at the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary (BFMS) in Ghana. Adult female C. vellerosus display an overall increase in social interaction after the birth of an infant, presenting a known social shift that I utilized in conjunction with gut microbial samples to explore the association between increased social cohesion and the composition of the gut microbiome. I used previously collected field data (2018-2020) from all adult females across four social groups of C. vellerosus, resulting in 218 total fecal samples and a mean of 17.2 focal hours of behavioral data per female (SD +/- 3.96). I used these data to characterize microbiomes using 16S rRNA sequencing and quantify changes in social cohesion in the presence of an infant. I found that the presence of an infant was significantly associated with a change in gut microbial similarity across all groups (PERMANOVA: p<0.01), and for three of the four social groups, adult female gut microbiomes become more similar after an infant is born (GLMM: p<0.036). However, social network analysis did not reveal significant changes in social cohesion with a young infant present, indicating that other changes in social interactions not included in my analyses may help explain this pattern. Based on these findings, future work would aim to evaluate the basis for differences in gut microbial variation between social groups and explore the presence of allocare and grooming rates in this study population with a young infant present. Investigating the relationship between changes in social interactions and the mechanisms of microbial variation ultimately contributes to our understanding of the factors influencing the assembly, composition, and diversity of the gut microbiome. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.orcid | 0009-0000-4756-3204 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/28669 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | |
| dc.subject | Gut microbiome | en_US |
| dc.subject | Social behavior | en_US |
| dc.subject | Black-and-white colobus | en_US |
| dc.subject | Microbial transmission | en_US |
| dc.title | Sociality and the Microbiome: Gut Microbial Convergence with Infant Presence in the Black-and-White Colobus Monkey (Colobus vellerosus) | |
| dc.type | Thesis/Dissertation |