Social network community structure and the contact-mediated sharing of commensal E. coli among captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

In group-living animals, heterogeneity in individuals’ social connections may mediate the sharing of microbial infectious agents. In this regard, the genetic relatedness of individuals’ commensal gut bacterium Escherichia coli may be ideal to assess the potential for pathogen transmission through animal social networks. Here we use microbial phylogenetics and population genetics approaches, as well as host social network reconstruction, to assess evidence for the contact-mediated sharing of E. coli among three groups of captively housed rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), at multiple organizational scales. For each group, behavioral data on grooming, huddling, and aggressive interactions collected for a six-week period were used to reconstruct social network communities via the Data Cloud Geometry (DCG) clustering algorithm. Further, an E. coli isolate was biochemically confirmed and genotypically fingerprinted from fecal swabs collected from each macaque. Population genetics approaches r...在群居动物中，个体社交联系的异质性或许会介导微生物感染原的传播。就此而言，个体共生肠道细菌大肠杆菌（Escherichia coli）的遗传相关性，或是评估病原体通过动物社交网络传播潜力的理想指标。本研究采用微生物系统发育学、群体遗传学方法，结合宿主社交网络重构手段，在多个组织尺度上，对三群圈养恒河猴（Macaca mulatta）中由接触介导的大肠杆菌传播证据展开评估。针对每个猴群，研究人员收集了为期六周的理毛、依偎以及攻击行为数据，并通过数据云几何（Data Cloud Geometry, DCG）聚类算法重构社交网络社群。此外，研究人员从每只恒河猴的粪便拭子中分离得到大肠杆菌菌株，并通过生化鉴定与基因型指纹分析完成确认。群体遗传学方法……