Social behavior shapes the chimpanzee pan-microbiome.

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Primatology
• Evolutionary Biology

Background:

• Animal sociality impacts pathogen transmission but its role in beneficial microbial associations is understudied.
• Gut microbial communities are crucial for host health regulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how social interactions influence gut microbiome diversity in chimpanzees.
• To determine the role of sociality in the transmission of gut microbes across generations.

Main Methods:

• Analyzing gut microbiome composition in chimpanzees.
• Observing social interactions and their correlation with microbial diversity.
• Tracking microbial inheritance across successive generations within chimpanzee families.

Main Results:

• Frequent social interaction increases species richness within individual chimpanzee gut microbiomes.
• Social behavior promotes homogeneity in gut microbial community membership among chimpanzees.
• Infants primarily inherit gut microorganisms through social transmission from their mothers and social group.

Conclusions:

• Social interactions are a key driver of gut microbiome diversity in chimpanzees.
• Social transmission of microbes shapes host-microbiome associations across generations.
• Social behavior contributes to the formation of a pan-microbiome and the evolution of host-specific microbial communities.