@article{beec9d9f2c2443e1ad45eb73ea476eca,
title = "Habitat degradation impacts black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra) gastrointestinal microbiomes",
abstract = "The gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome contributes significantly to host nutrition and health. However, relationships involving GI microbes, their hosts and host macrohabitats remain to be established. Here, we define clear patterns of variation in the GI microbiomes of six groups of Mexican black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra) occupying a gradation of habitats including a continuous evergreen rainforest, an evergreen rainforest fragment, a continuous semi-deciduous forest and captivity. High throughput microbial 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing indicated that diversity, richness and composition of howler GI microbiomes varied with host habitat in relation to diet. Howlers occupying suboptimal habitats consumed less diverse diets and correspondingly had less diverse gut microbiomes. Quantitative real-time PCR also revealed a reduction in the number of genes related to butyrate production and hydrogen metabolism in the microbiomes of howlers occupying suboptimal habitats, which may impact host health.",
keywords = "Alouatta, gut microbiome, habitat, primate",
author = "Amato, {Katherine R.} and Yeoman, {Carl J.} and Angela Kent and Nicoletta Righini and Franck Carbonero and Alejandro Estrada and {Rex Gaskins}, H. and Stumpf, {Rebecca M.} and Suleyman Yildirim and Manolito Torralba and Marcus Gillis and Wilson, {Brenda A.} and Nelson, {Karen E.} and White, {Bryan A.} and Leigh, {Steven R.}",
note = "Funding Information: We would like to thank David Mu{\~n}oz for his assistance with forest fragment sample collection, Jenna Leinberger and Maeve Leurck for their assistance with qRT–PCR, and Dr Salomon Gonzalez for his permission to collect captive howler samples at Acajungla/Aluxes. Thanks are also due to Dr Roderick Mackie for use of lab supplies and space, to Dr Paul Garber as Ph.D. advisor to KRA, and to two anonymous reviewers for their comments. Research was carried out under permits from the Mexican environmental agencies, the Secretaria del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT) and the Comision Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP), granted to AE. We appreciate the logistical support provided by Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) through AE. INIFAP and Ing. Antonio Sanchez Martinez granted permission to NR and AE to work at El Tormento. This project was funded by the NSF grant #0935347 (Human Origins Moving in New Directions (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 is supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. 16S sequence data are available from the authors upon request.",
year = "2013",
month = jul,
doi = "10.1038/ismej.2013.16",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "7",
pages = "1344--1353",
journal = "ISME Journal",
issn = "1751-7362",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "7",
}