Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gut microbiome and response to environmental change

The gastrointestinal (gut) microbiome is extremely responsive to the host’s environment and helps regulate host physiology. This doctoral dissertation research examines how the gut microbiome is likely an important component of physiological adaption in wild, non-human primates. Because the gut microbiome is tied to many different aspects of health throughout the life course, results from this study can provide valuable insights into how gut microbes facilitate host stress and immune response to help wild primates cope with changes in their environment.

In addition, this project explores the impact of the gut microbiome on primate fitness and evolution. While conducting the dissertation project, the doctoral student participates in scientific outreach for K-12 students and gives talks about the importance of gut microbes for human and animal health. The doctoral student also mentors undergraduate students in fieldwork, laboratory, and data analysis methods including competitive binding assays and bioinformatics pipelines.

This research investigates how gut microbes help regulate the stress and immune response in wild, white-faced capuchins (Cebus imitator). The gut microbiome is extremely responsive to the host’s environment; this flexibility likely helps the host regulate their physiology to cope with changes in the environment. Evidence suggests stress and immune physiology are affected by gut microbiome composition, therefore, gut microbiome flexibility to the host’s environment is likely crucial for primate health and fitness.

White-faced capuchins cope with drastic seasonal differences in resource levels (i.e. food, water, shade) which offers an opportunity to monitor concurrent changes in the gut microbiome, immune system, and stress physiology in response to environmental change. By combining gut microbiome sampling with non-invasive measures of stress (i.e. fecal glucocorticoids) and immune health (i.e. urinary neopterin), the doctoral student specifically evaluates 1) how the social and ecological environment affect capuchin gut microbiome composition, 2) how gut microbiome composition relates to the stress and immune response, and 3) whether gut microbiome composition and immune and stress physiology respond sequentially to environmental change.

This research should provide insight into whether gut microbiome regulation of the stress and immune response is an evolved mechanism that helps primates respond to environmental change.

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.