Factors driving gut virome composition and stability in zoo-housed and wild bonobos (Pan paniscus)

The human gut contains trillions of viruses, which have only recently started to get attention in microbiome research. Current evidence suggests that the composition of the human gut virome is highly individual specific but relatively stable over time, but the factors that drive these patterns are still poorly understood. Progress is hindered by a lack of standardized methods in virome research, and ethical and practical considerations that accompany experimental work and longitudinal sampling in humans. Animal studies, and especially in great apes, offer a unique potential for larger experimental control and provide insights into the evolutionary processes that shaped the human virome. In this project, I will study the factors driving gut virome composition in bonobos using an unprecedented sample that includes the entire European zoo-housed population and two wild communities in Africa. I will apply state-of-the art virome analytical methods to investigate to what extent virome profiles are shaped by host specific factors like sex, age or genetics, or rather by external factors like geography, diet and sociality using both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal sampling approach. My dataset will also allow for pioneering work on studying the effects of antibiotics use on the virome’s ability to increase the emergence of antibiotic resistance genes through interaction with the gut bacteria, which can have major implications for human treatment protocols.