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Social networks predict gut microbiome composition in wild baboons.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Tung, J; Barreiro, LB; Burns, MB; Grenier, J-C; Lynch, J; Grieneisen, LE; Altmann, J; Alberts, SC; Blekhman, R; Archie, EA
Published in: eLife
March 2015

Social relationships have profound effects on health in humans and other primates, but the mechanisms that explain this relationship are not well understood. Using shotgun metagenomic data from wild baboons, we found that social group membership and social network relationships predicted both the taxonomic structure of the gut microbiome and the structure of genes encoded by gut microbial species. Rates of interaction directly explained variation in the gut microbiome, even after controlling for diet, kinship, and shared environments. They therefore strongly implicate direct physical contact among social partners in the transmission of gut microbial species. We identified 51 socially structured taxa, which were significantly enriched for anaerobic and non-spore-forming lifestyles. Our results argue that social interactions are an important determinant of gut microbiome composition in natural animal populations-a relationship with important ramifications for understanding how social relationships influence health, as well as the evolution of group living.

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Published In

eLife

DOI

EISSN

2050-084X

ISSN

2050-084X

Publication Date

March 2015

Volume

4

Related Subject Headings

  • Species Specificity
  • Social Environment
  • Social Behavior
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Papio
  • Metagenomics
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Grooming
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome
 

Citation

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Tung, J., Barreiro, L. B., Burns, M. B., Grenier, J.-C., Lynch, J., Grieneisen, L. E., … Archie, E. A. (2015). Social networks predict gut microbiome composition in wild baboons. ELife, 4. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.05224
Tung, Jenny, Luis B. Barreiro, Michael B. Burns, Jean-Christophe Grenier, Josh Lynch, Laura E. Grieneisen, Jeanne Altmann, Susan C. Alberts, Ran Blekhman, and Elizabeth A. Archie. “Social networks predict gut microbiome composition in wild baboons.ELife 4 (March 2015). https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.05224.
Tung J, Barreiro LB, Burns MB, Grenier J-C, Lynch J, Grieneisen LE, et al. Social networks predict gut microbiome composition in wild baboons. eLife. 2015 Mar;4.
Tung, Jenny, et al. “Social networks predict gut microbiome composition in wild baboons.ELife, vol. 4, Mar. 2015. Epmc, doi:10.7554/elife.05224.
Tung J, Barreiro LB, Burns MB, Grenier J-C, Lynch J, Grieneisen LE, Altmann J, Alberts SC, Blekhman R, Archie EA. Social networks predict gut microbiome composition in wild baboons. eLife. 2015 Mar;4.

Published In

eLife

DOI

EISSN

2050-084X

ISSN

2050-084X

Publication Date

March 2015

Volume

4

Related Subject Headings

  • Species Specificity
  • Social Environment
  • Social Behavior
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Papio
  • Metagenomics
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Grooming
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome