Data from: Group living and male dispersal predict the core gut microbiome in wild baboons

The mammalian gut microbiome plays a profound role in the physiology, metabolism, and overall health of its host. However, biologists have only a nascent understanding of the forces that drive inter-individual heterogeneity in gut microbial composition, especially the role of host social environment. Here we used 178 samples from 78 wild yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) living in two social groups to test how host social context, including group living, social interactions within groups, and transfer between social groups (e.g., dispersal) predict inter-individual variation in gut microbial alpha and beta diversity. We also tested whether social effects differed for prevalent “core” gut microbial taxa, which are thought to provide primary functions to hosts, versus rare “non-core” microbes, which may represent relatively transient environmental acquisitions. Confirming prior studies, we found that each social group harbored a distinct gut microbial community. These differences included both non-core and core gut microbial taxa, suggesting that these effects are not solely driven by recent gut microbial exposures. Within social groups, close grooming partners had more similar core microbiomes, but not non-core microbiomes, than individuals who rarely groomed each other, even controlling for kinship and diet similarity between grooming partners. Finally, in support of the idea that the gut microbiome can be altered by current social context, we found that the longer an immigrant male had lived in a given social group, the more closely his gut microbiome resembled the gut microbiomes of the group’s long-term residents. Together, these results reveal the importance of a host’s social context in shaping the gut microbiome and shed new light onto the microbiome-related consequences of male dispersal.

哺乳动物肠道微生物组（gut microbiome）对宿主的生理机能、代谢过程与整体健康具有至关重要的调控作用。然而，生物学家对于驱动肠道微生物组成个体间异质性的各类因素，尤其是宿主社会环境的作用，仍仅处于初步认知阶段。本研究采集了栖息于两个社会群体的78只野生黄狒狒（Papio cynocephalus）的178份样本，以此检验宿主社会情境——包括群体居住、群体内社会互动以及群体间转移（如扩散行为）——如何预测肠道微生物α多样性（alpha diversity）与β多样性（beta diversity）的个体间差异。本研究同时检验了社会效应对普遍存在的“核心”肠道微生物类群（被认为可为宿主提供核心生理功能）与稀有“非核心”微生物（多为相对短暂的环境获取性菌群）的影响是否存在差异。与既往研究结果一致，我们发现每个社会群体均拥有独特的肠道微生物群落结构，且这类差异同时涉及核心与非核心肠道微生物类群，这表明上述群体效应并非仅由近期的肠道微生物接触所驱动。在同一社会群体内部，相较于极少互相理毛的个体，亲密理毛伙伴的核心肠道微生物组相似度更高，但非核心微生物组并无此特征，该结果在控制了理毛伙伴间的亲缘关系与饮食相似度后依然成立。最后，为验证肠道微生物组可受当前社会情境调控这一假说，我们发现迁入雄性狒狒在某一社会群体中居住的时间越长，其肠道微生物组与该群体长期定居个体的肠道微生物组相似度就越高。综合来看，本研究结果揭示了宿主社会情境在塑造肠道微生物组过程中的重要性，并为雄性扩散行为的微生物组相关后果提供了新的研究视角。