Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 8, 2026

Operating and Biocontainment Procedures of a Facility for Laboratory Mice with a Natural Microbiome: Immunophenotyping Procedure
Published on: December 13, 2024
Social microbiome transmission predicts microbial specialization and host lifespan in a wild primate
Reena Debray1, Caroline C Dickson2, Shasta E Webb2
1Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, SN, Germany.
None:
Social interactions are proposed to provide reliable routes for microbial transmission between animals, facilitating animal-microbiome co-evolution. However, microbiome transmission remains challenging to measure in wild populations. Here we combine behavioral observations of wild baboons with repeated strain-resolved metagenomic profiling to identify individual gut microbial species that follow a dominant mode of social transmission. In an 18-year metagenomic time series from the same population, baboons with higher levels of socially transmitted species lived longer than those with lower levels of socially transmitted species. Socially transmitted species were also more stable and persistent within baboons, yet had narrower host ranges outside of baboons. Thus, social transmission is not only detectable in free-living primates, but may play a special role in both host and microbial fitness.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Development of Human Microbiota
Introduction to the Human Microbiota
Evolution of New Traits in Microbes
Microbial Interactions: Parasitism
Evolutionary Processes in Microbes
Evolution of Microbial Genome

