Elizabeth K. Mallott

Washington University in St. Louis | WUSTL , Wash U · Department of Biology

Introduction: Intestinal infections with helminths (parasitic worms) and protists (single-celled eukaryotes) may be neglected health issues in low-resource communities across the United States. Because they predominantly infect school-aged children and can lead to nutritional deficiencies and developmental delays, these infections can affect lifel...

Although profibrotic cytokines, such as IL-17A and TGF-β1, have been implicated in the pathogenesis of interstitial lung disease (ILD), the interactions between gut dysbiosis, gonadotrophic hormones and molecular mediators of profibrotic cytokine expression, such as the phosphorylation of STAT3, have not been defined. Here, through chromatin immuno...

Although profibrotic cytokines such as IL-17A and TGF-β1 have been implicated in interstitial lung disease (ILD) pathogenesis, interactions between gut dysbiosis, gonadotrophic hormones and molecular mediators of profibrotic cytokine expression, such as phosphorylation of STAT3, have not been defined. Here we show by chromatin immunoprecipitation s...

Independent studies demonstrate the significance of gut microbiota on the pathogenesis of chronic lung diseases; yet little is known regarding the role of the gut microbiota in lung fibrosis progression. Here we show, using the bleomycin murine model to quantify lung fibrosis in C57BL/6 J mice housed in germ-free, animal biosafety level 1 (ABSL-1),...

Many diseases linked with ethnic health disparities associate with changes in microbial communities in the United States, but the causes and persistence of ethnicity-associated microbiome variation are not understood. For instance, microbiome studies that strictly control for diet across ethnically diverse populations are lacking. Here, we performe...

Animals living in anthropogenically disturbed habitats are exposed to environmental stressors which can trigger physiological reactions, such as chronic elevations of glucocorticoid hormones. Physiological responses to stressors may induce changes in the gut microbiome, most likely, facilitated by the gut-brain communication. Although these effects...

Mammals rely on the metabolic functions of their gut microbiota to meet their energetic needs and digest potentially toxic components in their diet. The gut microbiome plastically responds to shifts in host diet and may buffer variation in energy and nutrient availability. However, it is unclear how seasonal differences in the gut microbiome influe...

Biocultural perspectives combining methods and theories from biological and cultural anthropology are needed to better understand socioeconomic and race‐based health inequities in the United States. For example, the developmental trajectories of gastrointestinal health disparities based on embodied (i.e., internalized) inequities in resource access...

Significance California supports a high cultural and linguistic diversity of Indigenous peoples. In a partnership of researchers with the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, we studied genomes of eight present-day tribal members and 12 ancient individuals from two archaeological sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, spanning ∼2,000 y. We find that compared to gen...

Embodiment Theory describes how external environments and lived experiences shape internal physiology and health. Documented disparities in rates of intestinal inflammation and gastrointestinal cancers between Black and white Americans may be related to embodied experiences of psychosocial stress, unequal access to resources, and exposure to pathog...

Infections caused by protozoa and helminths (i.e., worms) are often grouped with certain bacterial/viral infections as Neglected Tropical Diseases because they receive little research attention despite having notable impacts on immune system development and health. This classification leads to the incorrect assumption that non-tropical high-income...

Over the course of human evolution, shifts in dietary practices such as meat-eating and cooking, have resulted in reduced fiber intake, a trend that has been exaggerated more recently in industrialized populations. Reduced fiber consumption is associated with a loss of gut microbial taxa that degrade fiber, particularly butyrate. Therefore, this di...

Gut bacteria may coexist with other groups of organisms, such as nematode parasites, that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract of primates; however, the possible effects of endoparasites on bacterial communities are frequently overlooked. Here we explored whether infection with Trypanoxyuris, an oxyurid gastrointestinal parasite, is associated with c...

Fermented foods are an important part of the human diet. While the types of fermented foods consumed as well as the processes used to create them vary regionally, the majority of human populations globally deliberately produce and consume fermented foods as a central part of their diets. This pattern is in contrast to that of other vertebrates, inc...

Independent reports note the significance of gut microbiota on lung disease severity; however, studies using murine models to define the role of the gut microbiome in pulmonary fibrosis progression are missing. We used the bleomycin murine model to quantify lung fibrosis in C57BL/6J mice housed in germ-free, animal biosafety level 1 (ABSL-1), or an...

Developing general principles of host–microorganism interactions necessitates a robust understanding of the eco-evolutionary processes that structure microbiota. Phylosymbiosis, or patterns of microbiome composition that can be predicted by host phylogeny, is a unique framework for interrogating these processes. Identifying the contexts in which ph...

Objectives: Although fermented food use is ubiquitous in humans, the ecological and evolutionary factors contributing to its emergence are unclear. Here we investigated the ecological contexts surrounding fermented food use by wild primates to provide insight into its adaptive function. We hypothesized that climate, socio-ecological traits, and hab...

Objectives Although fermented food use is ubiquitous in humans, the ecological and evolutionary factors contributing to its emergence are unclear. Here we investigated the ecological contexts surrounding the consumption of fruits in the late stages of fermentation by wild primates to provide insight into its adaptive function. We hypothesized that...

Objectives Although fermented food use is ubiquitous in humans, the ecological and evolutionary factors contributing to its emergence are unclear. Here we investigated the ecological contexts surrounding the consumption of fruits in the late stages of fermentation by wild primates to provide insight into its adaptive function. We hypothesized that...

Habitat disturbance, a common consequence of anthropogenic land use practices, creates human–animal interfaces where humans, wildlife, and domestic species can interact. These altered habitats can influence host–microbe dynamics, leading to potential downstream effects on host physiology and health. Here, we explored the effect of ecological overla...

Studies in multiple host species have shown that gut microbial diversity and composition change during pregnancy and lactation. However, the specific mechanisms underlying these shifts are not well understood. Here, we use longitudinal data from wild Phayre’s leaf monkeys to test the hypothesis that fluctuations in reproductive hormone concentratio...

Despite careful attention to animal nutrition and wellbeing, gastrointestinal distress remains relatively common in captive non-human primates (NHPs), particularly dietary specialists such as folivores. These patterns may be a result of marked dietary differences between captive and wild settings and associated impacts on the gut microbiome. Howeve...

Background: Comparative data from non-human primates provide insight into the processes that shaped the evolution of the human gut microbiome and highlight microbiome traits that differentiate humans from other primates. Here, in an effort to improve our understanding of the human microbiome, we compare gut microbiome composition and functional po...

Automated, high-throughput technologies are becoming increasingly common in microbiome studies to decrease costs and increase efficiency. However, in microbiome studies, small differences in methodology - including storage conditions, wet lab methods, sequencing platforms and data analysis - can influence the reproducibility and comparability of da...

The gut microbiome of primates, including humans, is reported to closely follow host evolutionary history, with gut microbiome composition being specific to the genetic background of its primate host. However, the comparative models used to date have mainly included a limited set of closely related primates. To further understand the forces that sh...

Body mass is a strong predictor of diet and nutritional requirements across a wide range of mammalian taxa. In the case of small‐bodied primates, because of their limited gut volume, rapid food passage rate, and high metabolic rate, they are hypothesized to maintain high digestive efficiency by exploiting foods rich in protein, fats, and readily av...

Changes in reproductive status influence energy and nutrient requirements in female primates. The gut microbiota may buffer changes in energy demands, with shifts in community composition increasing the energy production potential of the gut during pregnancy and lactation. In this study, we examine changes in the gut microbiome of wild, female whit...

DNA metabarcoding is a powerful tool for assessing the diets of wild animals, but there is no clear consensus on which proposed plant barcoding marker is most suitable for dietary analysis. This study compares two DNA plant barcoding markers that are commonly used for dietary analyses from degraded DNA, rbcL and trnL, to detailed dietary observatio...

Relative abundance of rbcL sequences assigned specific taxa for the entire study period. (XLSX)

ecotag output for rbcL sequences with taxonomic annotations. (TXT)

Detailed methods for the bioinformatic analyses. (DOCX)

Relative abundance of trnL sequences assigned specific taxa for the entire study period. (XLSX)

ecotag output for trnL sequences with taxonomic annotations. (TXT)

Percentage of observed feeding and foraging time spent consuming plant species in each month. (XLSX)

Correlations between observed percentage of feeding and foraging time on plant families and both frequency of occurrence and relative abundances of rbcL and trnL sequences. (XLSX)

The effects of European colonization on the genomes of Native Americans may have produced excesses of potentially deleterious features, mainly due to the severe reductions in population size and corresponding losses of genetic diversity. This assumption, however, neither considers actual genomic patterns that existed before colonization nor does it...

Research question: How does seasonality influence the metabolome of wild black howler monkeys? Methods • We collected behavioral data and fecal samples (n=81) from 16 black howler monkeys in Palenque National Park, Mexico • Samples were collected during wet, fruit-dominated (WFD), dry, leaf-dominated (DLD), and dry, fruit-dominated (DFD) seasons •...

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract of non-human primates is inhabited by a range of microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, microbial eukaryotes, and viruses. While these organisms undoubtedly interact with each other, most studies to date describe relationships between hosts and single groups of GI microorganisms. However, understanding the asso...

Objectives: Invertebrate consumption is thought to be an integral part of early hominin diets, and many modern human populations regularly consume insects and other arthropods. This study examines the response of gut microbial community structure and function to changes in diet in wild white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus), a primate that incorp...

Seven fish vertebrae were chosen for analysis from the 49-KEN-147 archaeological site in the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the ancient fish bones revealed that they were from sockeye and coho salmon. Here, we report the ancient mitochondrial genomes for three sockeye salmon and one coho salmon fish bone.

The curse of ancient Egyptian DNA was lifted by a recent study which sequenced the mitochondrial genomes (mtGenome) of 90 ancient Egyptians from the archaeological site of Abusir el-Meleq. Surprisingly, these ancient inhabitants were more closely related to those from the Near East than to contemporary Egyptians. It has been accepted that the timel...

RESUMEN CG14E01 " Isla Larga " es un sitio con estructu-ra monticular (" cerrito de indios ") localizado en el depar-tamento de Rocha (Uruguay), con una cronología que se extiende de 3600 años AP al siglo XVII. En este sitio se registran evidencias vinculadas con diversos contactos inte-rétnicos en la forma de dos urnas Tupiguaraní y cuentas de vid...

CG14E01 “Isla Larga” es un sitio con estructura monticular (“cerrito de indios”) localizado en el departamento de Rocha (Uruguay), con una cronología que se extiende de 3600 años AP al siglo XVII. En este sitio se registran evidencias vinculadas con diversos contactos interétnicos en la forma de dos urnas Tupiguaraní y cuentas de vidrio de origen e...

Objectives: Invertebrate foraging strategies in nonhuman primates often require complex extractive foraging or prey detection techniques. As these skills take time to master, juveniles may have reduced foraging efficiency or concentrate their foraging efforts on easier to acquire prey than adults. Materials and methods: We use DNA barcoding, beh...

The genus Saguinus represents a successful radiation of over 20 species of small-bodied New World monkeys. Studies of the tamarin diet indicate that insects and small vertebrates account for ∼16–45% of total feeding and foraging time, and represent an important source of lipids, protein, and metabolizable energy. Although tamarins are reported to c...

Several species of callitrichines (tamarins, marmosets, and callimicos) are reported to frequently leap between vertical supports when foraging and traveling in the forest understory. In the present study, we examine trunk-to-trunk leaping in a wild group of four habituated adult saddleback tamarins (Saguinus fuscicollis weddelli) in northern Boliv...