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The Howler Monkey as a Model for Exploring Host-Gut Microbiota Interactions in Primates

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Howler Monkeys

Part of the book series: Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects ((DIPR))

Abstract

The mammalian gut microbiota is essential to many aspects of host physiology, including nutrition, metabolic activity, and immune homeostasis. Despite the existence of numerous studies of the impact of the gut microbiota on human health and disease, much work remains to be done to improve our understanding of the host-microbe relationship in nonhuman primates. Howler monkeys (Alouatta spp.) are highly dependent on the gut microbiota for the breakdown of plant structural carbohydrates, and in this chapter we use new data describing the gut microbiome of captive and wild black howler monkeys (A. pigra) to develop and test two models of host-microbe interactions and bioenergetics. Improving our understanding of how spatial and temporal fluctuations in diet affect the nonhuman primate gut microbiota, and how this in turn influences host nutrition and physiology, has important implications for the study of the role that the gut microbiota plays in primate ecology, health, and conservation.

Resumen

El papel de la microbiota intestinal es fundamental para muchos aspectos de la fisiología de los mamíferos, incluyendo la nutrición, la actividad metabólica y la homeostasis del sistema inmune. A pesar de la existencia de muchos estudios acerca de la microbiota intestinal humana debido a sus implicaciones para la salud, aún queda mucho por hacer para poder entender la relación huésped-microorganismos en primates no humanos. Los monos aulladores (Alouatta spp.) dependen de manera importante de los microbios intestinales para la digestión de los carbohidratos estructurales de las plantas. En este capítulo utilizamos nuevos datos sobre la composición de la microbiota de monos aulladores negros cautivos y silvestres (A. pigra) para desarrollar y poner a prueba dos modelos sobre las interacciones huésped-microbios desde un punto de vista ecológico y bioenergético. El análisis del efecto de las fluctuaciones espaciales y temporales de la dieta sobre la microbiota intestinal de los primates, y de cómo esto a su vez se refleja en la nutrición y fisiología del huésped, tiene implicaciones importantes para entender el papel de la microbiota en la ecología, salud y conservación de los primates.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank A. Estrada and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for logistic support. Thanks are also due to R. Mackie for use of lab supplies and space at the University of Illinois. Research was carried out under permits from the Mexican environmental agencies, the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT), the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP), and the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP). The Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y Alimentación (SAGARPA) in Mexico and the Center for Disease Control in the U.S. provided permits for sample transport. We acknowledge the helpful comments of P. Garber and one anonymous reviewer on this manuscript. This project was funded by the NSF grant #0935347 (HOMINID). Fieldwork and preliminary lab work were funded by grants from the University of Illinois (Beckman, Tinker, and the Program in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology) to KRA. KRA was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. 16S sequence data are available from the authors upon request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA

    Katherine R. Amato

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Katherine R. Amato

  3. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA

    Nicoletta Righini

  4. Instituto de Ecologia, A.C., Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Nicoletta Righini

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  1. Katherine R. Amato
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Correspondence to Katherine R. Amato .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Estación Biológica Corrientes, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Martín M. Kowalewski

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA

    Paul A. Garber

  3. Museum of Zoology, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Liliana Cortés-Ortiz

  4. Centro de Antropología, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Caracas, Venezuela

    Bernardo Urbani

  5. Department of Zoology, Aristotle University of Thessalonik, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Dionisios Youlatos

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Amato, K.R., Righini, N. (2015). The Howler Monkey as a Model for Exploring Host-Gut Microbiota Interactions in Primates. In: Kowalewski, M., Garber, P., Cortés-Ortiz, L., Urbani, B., Youlatos, D. (eds) Howler Monkeys. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1957-4_9

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