Selected Grantee Publications

Large Comparative Analyses of Primate Body Site Microbiomes Indicate That the Oral Microbiome Is Unique Among All Body Sites and Conserved Among Nonhuman Primates

Asangba et al., Microbiology Spectrum. 2022.

https://www.doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.01643-21

Microbiomes are critical to host health and disease, but large gaps remain in the understanding of the determinants, coevolution, and variation of microbiomes across body sites and host species. Thus, researchers conducted the largest comparative study of primate microbiomes to date by investigating microbiome community composition at eight distinct body sites in 17 host species. They found that the oral microbiome is unique in exhibiting notable similarity across primate species while being distinct from the microbiomes of all other body sites and host species. This finding suggests conserved oral microbial niche specialization, despite substantial dietary and phylogenetic differences among primates. Supported by ORIP (P51OD010425, P51OD011107, P40OD010965, R01OD010980), NIA, NIAID, and NICHD.