Data from: Social networks predict gut microbiome composition in wild baboons

Social relationships have profound effects on health in humans and other primates, but the mechanisms that explain this relationship are not well understood. Using shotgun metagenomic data from wild baboons, we found that social group membership and social network relationships predicted both the taxonomic structure of the gut microbiome and the structure of genes encoded by gut microbial species. Rates of interaction directly explained variation in the gut microbiome, even after controlling for diet, kinship, and shared environments. They therefore strongly implicate direct physical contact among social partners in the transmission of gut microbial species. We identified 51 socially structured taxa, which were significantly enriched for anaerobic and non-spore-forming lifestyles. Our results argue that social interactions are an important determinant of gut microbiome composition in natural animal populations—a relationship with important ramifications for understanding how social relationships influence health, as well as the evolution of group living.

社会关系对人类及其他灵长类动物的健康具有深远影响，但其背后的作用机制仍未得到充分阐明。本研究利用野生狒狒的鸟枪宏基因组（shotgun metagenomic）数据，发现社会群体成员身份与社会网络联结，均可同时预测肠道微生物组（gut microbiome）的分类学结构，以及肠道微生物物种所编码的基因结构。即便在控制饮食、亲缘关系与共同栖息环境等混杂因素后，社交互动频率仍可直接解释肠道微生物组的变异情况，因此该结果有力证明了社交伙伴间的直接身体接触，在肠道微生物物种的传播过程中发挥了关键作用。本研究共鉴定出51个具有社会结构性的分类群（taxa），这些分类群显著富集于厌氧型与非产芽孢型的生存方式中。本研究结果表明，社交互动是自然动物种群肠道微生物组组成的重要决定因素——这一关联对于理解社会关系如何影响健康，以及群体生活的演化过程，均具有重要的研究意义。