Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.
Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolution Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.
mSystems. 2022 Aug 30;7(4):e0047822. doi: 10.1128/msystems.00478-22. Epub 2022 Jul 25.
Primate hair and skin are substrates upon which social interactions occur and are host-pathogen interfaces. While human hair and skin microbiomes display body site specificity and immunological significance, little is known about the nonhuman primate (NHP) hair microbiome. Here, we collected hair samples ( = 158) from 8 body sites across 12 NHP species housed at three zoological institutions in the United States to examine the following: (1) the diversity and composition of the primate hair microbiome and (2) the factors predicting primate hair microbiome diversity and composition. If both environmental and evolutionary factors shape the microbiome, then we expect significant differences in microbiome diversity across host body sites, sexes, institutions, and species. We found our samples contained high abundances of gut-, respiratory-, and environment-associated microbiota. In addition, multiple factors predicted microbiome diversity and composition, although host species identity outweighed sex, body site, and institution as the strongest predictor. Our results suggest that hair microbial communities are affected by both evolutionary and environmental factors and are relatively similar across nonhuman primate body sites, which differs from the human condition. These findings have important implications for understanding the biology and conservation of wild and captive primates and the uniqueness of the human microbiome. We created the most comprehensive primate hair and skin data set to date, including data from 12 nonhuman primate species sampled from 8 body regions each. We find that the nonhuman primate hair microbiome is distinct from the human hair and skin microbiomes in that it is relatively uniform-as opposed to distinct-across body regions and is most abundant in gut-, environment-, and respiratory-associated microbiota rather than human skin-associated microbiota. Furthermore, we found that the nonhuman primate hair microbiome varies with host species identity, host sex, host environment, and host body site, with host species identity being the strongest predictor. This result demonstrates that nonhuman primate hair microbiome diversity varies with both evolutionary and environmental factors and within and across primate species. These findings have important implications for understanding the biology and conservation of wild and captive primates and the uniqueness of the human microbiome.
灵长类动物的毛发和皮肤是发生社会互动的基质，也是宿主-病原体的界面。虽然人类的毛发和皮肤微生物组具有身体部位特异性和免疫学意义，但对非人类灵长类动物（NHP）的毛发微生物组知之甚少。在这里，我们从美国三个动物园机构饲养的 12 个 NHP 物种的 8 个身体部位收集了毛发样本（n=158），以检验以下内容：（1）灵长类动物毛发微生物组的多样性和组成，以及（2）预测灵长类动物毛发微生物组多样性和组成的因素。如果环境和进化因素都塑造了微生物组，那么我们预计宿主身体部位、性别、机构和物种之间的微生物组多样性会有显著差异。我们发现我们的样本中含有大量的肠道、呼吸道和环境相关的微生物群。此外，尽管宿主物种身份是最强的预测因素，但多个因素预测了微生物组的多样性和组成。我们的研究结果表明，毛发微生物群落受到进化和环境因素的影响，在非人类灵长类动物的身体部位之间相对相似，这与人类的情况不同。这些发现对理解野生和圈养灵长类动物的生物学和保护以及人类微生物组的独特性具有重要意义。我们创建了迄今为止最全面的灵长类毛发和皮肤数据集，包括从 8 个身体部位采集的 12 种非人类灵长类动物的数据。我们发现，非人类灵长类动物的毛发微生物组与人类的毛发和皮肤微生物组不同，它在身体部位之间相对均匀（而不是独特），并且在肠道、环境和呼吸道相关的微生物群中最为丰富，而不是人类皮肤相关的微生物群。此外，我们发现非人类灵长类动物的毛发微生物组随着宿主物种身份、宿主性别、宿主环境和宿主身体部位而变化，其中宿主物种身份是最强的预测因素。这一结果表明，非人类灵长类动物的毛发微生物组多样性受到进化和环境因素的影响，并且在灵长类动物物种内部和之间都存在差异。这些发现对理解野生和圈养灵长类动物的生物学和保护以及人类微生物组的独特性具有重要意义。
