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Profile - Andrew Fogel
Andrew Fogel
Contact Information
E-mail: afogel@usc.edu
Mail Code: 0371
Started at USC: Fall 2007
Education:
2007 - present
Graduate Student, Integrative & Evolutionary Biology
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Faculty Advisor(s):
Dr. Nayuta Yamashita, Anthropology
Research Abstract:
Primates consume an astounding breadth of foods including leaves, fruits, gums, saps, nuts, seeds, insects, and meat.Many primate species have a specialized digestive system in order to cope with the digestive requirements to break down their foods.Primates that consume leaf material have a community of microbial symbionts (including bacteria, archaea, and protists) in their gastrointestinal (GI) tract that help to metabolize structural carbohydrates that can also act as mechanical plant defenses.Mechanical defenses deter ingestion and digestion and include spines and structural carbohydrates (such as cellulose).Chemical defenses can take the form of plant secondary compounds such as alkaloids, phenolics, and terpenoids, which can have unpleasant or toxic effects on the herbivore. Gut microbes are highly specialized, converting structural carbohydrates into nutrients for the primate.
My research integrates the fields of ecology, biological anthropology, and microbiology.I am studying the ringtailed lemur (Lemur catta) and Verreaux’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi), two sympatric lemurs in a Southwestern Madagascar dry forest.L. catta is a generalist herbivore, consuming fruit, leaves, stems, flowers, birds, and soil (1).P. verreauxi is mostly a folivore, specializing on leaves (2).Coinciding with their different diets, we should expect different community structure and functions in their gut bacterial communities that help them digest their foods. While P. verreauxi probably requires a large complement of cellulolytic microbes, L. catta may require a broader range of microbes to cope with the more varied plant defenses it will encounter through its generalist diet.
While much has been studied about the diets of these lemurs, there is comparatively little known about what occurs physiologically in their guts. Isolating and sequencing the microbial community found in the feces of these two lemurs will identify the digestive processes occurring within their GI tracts.These processes can then be correlated to their dietary choices and the plant defenses that these lemurs need to cope with.By using cutting-edge microbial techniques, the ‘black-box’ of their gut microbial communities will unfold and reveal the mechanism and variety of how these primates cope with plant defenses designed to keep them away.
Sauther, M. L., Sussman, R. W., Gould, L., 1999.The socioecology of the Ringtailed Lemur: Thirty-Five Years of Research.Evolutionary Anthropology, 8, 120-132.
Richard, A., 1977.The feeding behavior of Propithecus verreauxi. In: Clutton-Brock, T. H., editor.Primate ecology: studies of feeding and ranging behavior in lemurs, monkeys, and apes.London: Academic Press. p 71-96.
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