Speaker
Description
Anthropogenic impacts such as deforestation, habitat fragmentation and hunting have a significant impact on wildlife, reducing biodiversity and affecting the physiological health of many endangered species. To monitor the welfare of wildlife, the use of non-invasively collected samples such as feces is becoming increasingly valuable for environmental and ecological research. Fecal metabolomics offers a powerful approach to investigate metabolic responses to environmental and physiological stressors. This study compared the profiles of five non-human primate species: Pan troglodytes (chimpanzee), Pan paniscus (bonobo), Pongo abelii (Sumatran orangutan), Gorilla gorilla, and Macaca silenus (wanderoo), all housed under similar conditions at Leipzig Zoo (Germany). Samples were collected over five consecutive days, with five biological replicates per species per day, extracted on-site and stored at −20°C until analysis. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry were used to obtain profiles of both volatile and semi-volatile metabolites. A PLS-DA model with R²Y = 0.962, Q²Y = 0.788, and 66% cross-validated classification accuracy (p = 0.05), indicated reliable discrimination across species as a precondition to explore species-related information. Similar to human data, extracts were rich in polar organic acids, including amino acids and long-chain fatty acids, as well as sterols, bile acids, and their conjugates, while headspace analysis detected abundant short-chain fatty acids and fatty acid methyl esters. A comparison with fresh-frozen controls confirmed the suitability of the field-adapted sampling protocol for preserving metabolic information from fecal samples. Our protocol represents an easy-to-use approach for non-invasive metabolome screening under field conditions, especially when cold chains and laboratory infrastructures are limited. Its application in remote areas could significantly improve wildlife monitoring and allow researchers to track metabolic health and environmental responses across different species and habitats. Future work will include LC-MS and 1H-NMR analysis to further assess analytical suitability and obtain information on a broader range of metabolites.
| Status Group | Postdoctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| Poster Presentation Option | Yes, I’m willing to present as a poster. |
