| Popis: |
Energy demands associated with pregnancy and lactation have been a significant force in mammalian evolution. To mitigate increased energy costs associated with reproduction, female mammals have evolved multiple behavioural and physiological responses. Some species alter activity budget to conserve energy during pregnancy and lactation, while others experience changes in metabolic rate and fat deposition. Previous studies suggest that restructuring of gut microbiota with shifting reproductive states may help females increase energy harvest from foods, especially during pregnancy, while others have found little change in response to pregnancy or lactation. Here, we combined a robust set of >10,000 individual behavioural scans with >300 fecal samples collected longitudinally across multiple years from 33 known white-faced capuchin monkey females to examine the relationships among behaviour, gut microbiota composition, and reproductive state. We used a 16S-based amplicon sequencing approach and the DADA2 pipeline to anlayse gut microbiota diversity and putative functions. We found that reproductive state explained some variation in activity budget, but that overall resting behaviour was relatively stable across the reproductive cycle. We found evidence for increases in biotin synthesis pathways among microbes in lactating females, and that the alpha diversity of gut microbial bacteria was higher in pregnant females. Otherwise, the gut microbiota community structure and estimated functional pathways were not significantly different between reproductive states. These results suggest that capuchins in our population may have limited ability to mitigate energy costs through behaviour and microbiota and/or that ecological factors, including food availability and temperature may constrain behavioural flexibility and/or gut microbial plasticity. These data contribute to a broader understanding of plasticity and constrainst at multiple levels in response to the physiological shifts caused by mammalian reproduction. |
