Evolution of class I major histocompatibility complex genes and molecules in humans and apes.
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Karyotypic fission theory and the evolution of old world monkeys and apes.
The karyotypes of living catarrhines are correlated with the current concepts of their fossil record and systematic classification. A phylogeny, beginning at the base of the Oligocene, for those animals and their chromosome numbers is presented. Todd's (1970) theory of karyotypic fissioning is applied to this case - three fissioning events are hypothesized. A late Eocene event (the primary catarrhine fissioning) is hypothesized to underlie the diversification of the infraorder Catarrhini into its extant families, the second fissioning underlies the radiation of the pongidae/Hominidae in the Miocene and the third accounts for the high chromosome numbers (54 - 72) and the Neogene(Miocene-Pliocene-Pleistocene) radiation of members of the genus Cercopithecus. Published catarrhine chromosome data, including that for "marked" chromosomes (those with a large achromatic region that is the site for ribosomal RNA genes) are tabulated and analysed. The ancestral X chromosome is always retained in the unfissioned metacentric state. The Pongidae/Hominidae have 15 pairs of mediocentric chromosomes that survived the second fissioning whereas the other chromosomes (besides the X) are thought to be fission-derived acrocentrics. Both the detailed karyology and the trend from low to high numbers is best interpreted to support Todd's concept of adaptive radiations correlated with karyotypic fissioning in ancestral populations.
Animals↗
Studies on the minor haemoglobin components of anthropoid apes and new world monkeys.
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Animals↗
Apes know that hidden objects can affect the orientation of other objects.
Four bonobos, seven gorillas, and six orangutans were presented with two small rectangular boards on a platform. One of the boards had a piece of food under it so that it acquired an inclined orientation whereas the other remained flat on the platform. Subjects preferentially selected the inclined board. In another experiment, subjects were initially presented with two inclined boards and a transformation took place in which one of the boards fell flat to the platform while the other remained inclined. Subjects also preferred the board that remained inclined. Two additional experiments highlighted some of the possible limitations of their reasoning in this task. Presented with two inclined boards, one of which was visibly supported by a piece of wood, they failed to systematically select the unsupported one whose only reason for being inclined was the presence of the reward. Another experiment presented two rewards in each trial (instead of the customary one) in one of the following two combinations: large banana vs. small carrot or small banana vs. large carrot. Prior to the test, E presented both rewards to the subject and then hid each of them under one of the boards so that both boards were differentially inclined due to the different sizes of the rewards involved. Although subjects selected the board that showed a greater inclination (thus securing the larger reward), they disregarded the type of food that was involved. This often meant that they chose the large carrot over the small banana even though they reversed such a choice when the rewards were not occluded by the boards. Providing subjects with a 'reminder' of the type of reward hidden under the boards did not alter the original results. There was no evidence of learning throughout the various experiments and control tests ruled out the possibility of inadvertent cuing by the experimenter, poor performance due to a lack of motivation, or good performance due to a predisposition to select objects with sloped surfaces. It is concluded that subjects made some inferences about the reason for the inclined orientation of the boards, and not simply associated an inclined orientation with the presence of the reward.
Animals↗
Planet of the apes.
What makes us humans so special? Our language, our genes, our culture, our cognitive skills? At the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, psychologists, linguists and biologists tackle this old question in a truly multidisciplinary way. Their results have implications not just for our understanding of human evolution--they also touch directly on many social and environmental issues. Florian Maderspacher reports.
Academies and Institutes↗
Homocarnosinosis patients and great apes have a serum protein that cross-reacts with human serum carnosinase.
A specific polyclonal antiserum to human serum carnosinase was raised in rabbits and was used to prepare an agarose-protein A-antibody matrix. An antigen capture procedure showed that sera from homocarnosinosis patients, which lack carnosinase activity, contain an immunoreactive protein (M(r) 75,000) indistinguishable from the carnosinase band from normal serum. Other higher primates have active serum carnosinase and a similar immunoreactive M(r) 75,000 protein. The immunoaffinity matrix was used in a facile procedure to isolate pure carnosinase from human plasma with a yield of 69%. The antiserum inhibited human serum carnosinase strongly, but the maximum inhibition attained averaged only 71%. The antiserum inhibited human and chimpanzee serum carnosinases more effectively than gorilla or other higher primate serum carnosinases.
Animals↗
Development, validation, and application of a rapid method for detection of ovulation in great apes and in women.
A rapid hemagglutination inhibition test for detection of pregnancy in nonhuman primates has been modified to permit detection of the midcycle luteinizing hormone (LH) peak in hominid species. The test has been validated by correlation with immunoassayable LH activity in serum and urine. It has been used by the authors and others from prediction of ovulation in the gorilla, orangutan, chimpanzee, and human. This predictive capacity has been of value to experiments in natural breeding, artificial breeding, and ovum recovery. The test has potential value for monitoring of the normal menstrual cycle, enhancement of breeding efficiency, and identification of anovulatory cycles.
Animals↗
Patterns of mandibular variation in Pan and Gorilla and implications for African ape taxonomy.
Pan and Gorilla taxonomy is currently in a state of flux, with the number of existing species and subspecies of common chimpanzee and gorilla having been recently challenged. While Pan and Gorilla systematics have been evaluated on the basis of craniometric and odontometric data, only a handful of studies have evaluated multivariate craniometric variation within P. troglodytes, and none have evaluated in detail mandibular variation in either P. troglodytes or Gorilla gorilla. In this paper, we examine ontogenetic and adult mandibular variation in Pan and Gorilla. We test the hypothesis that patterns and degrees of mandibular variation in Pan and Gorilla closely correspond to those derived from previous analyses of craniometric variation. We then use these data to address some current issues surrounding Pan and Gorilla taxonomy. Specifically, we evaluate the purported distinctiveness of P.t. verus from the other two subspecies of Pan troglodytes, and the recent proposals to recognize Nigerian gorillas as a distinct subspecies, Gorilla gorilla diehli, and to acknowledge mountain and lowland gorillas as two separate species. Overall, patterns and degrees of multivariate mandibular differentiation parallel those obtained previously for the cranium and dentition. Thus, differences among the three conventionally recognized gorilla subspecies are somewhat greater than among subspecies of common chimpanzees, but differences between P. paniscus and P. troglodytes are greater than those observed between any gorilla subspecies. In this regard, the mandible does not appear to be more variable, or of less taxonomic value, than the face and other parts of the cranium. There are, however, some finer differences in the pattern and degree of morphological differentiation in Pan and Gorilla, both with respect to cranial and dental morphology, and in terms of the application and manner of size adjustment. Mandibular differentiation supports the conventional separation of bonobos from chimpanzees regardless of size adjustment, but size correction alters the relative alignment of taxa. Following size correction, intergroup distances are greatest between P.t. verus and all other groups, but there is considerable overlap amongst chimpanzee subspecies. Amongst gorillas, the greatest separation is between eastern and western gorillas, but adjustment relative to palatal vs. basicranial length results in a greater accuracy of group classification for G.g. gorilla and G.g. graueri, and more equivalent intergroup distances amongst all gorilla groups. We find no multivariate differentiation of the Nigerian gorillas based on mandibular morphology, suggesting that the primary difference between Nigerian and other western lowland gorillas lies in the nuchal region. Though intergroup distances are greatest between P.t. verus and other chimpanzee subspecies, the degree of overlap amongst all three groups does not indicate a markedly greater degree of distinction in mandibular, as opposed to other morphologies. Finally, mandibular differentiation corroborates previous craniodental studies indicating the greatest distinction amongst gorillas is between eastern and western groups. Thus, patterns and degrees of mandibular variation are in agreement with other kinds of data that have been used to diagnose eastern and western gorillas as separate species.
Africa↗
Peptide inhibitors of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway: a structure -mimetic peptide corresponding to the conserved inter-DFG-APE region in the kinase domain.
The signal transduction pathway mediated by mitogen-activated protein kinases is an attractive target for the design of pharmacologically effective inhibitors. Two specific cell-permeant small molecule inhibitors of this pathway have been reported. However, under certain circumstances, nonpermeable inhibitors, such as neutralizing antibodies and peptide inhibitors, are also useful. We present here a novel approach for such peptide inhibitor design. The procedure is based on the synthesis of a structure-mimetic peptide corresponding to a short peptide segment in the target molecule. The results obtained so far show that a peptide designed in such a way is an effective inhibitor of the pathway. The possible application of such peptides and antipeptide antibodies as probes for protein kinase regulation mechanisms is also evaluated.
Amino Acid Sequence↗
Understanding the dynamics of Spinocerebellar Ataxia 8 (SCA8) locus through a comparative genetic approach in humans and apes.
Spinocerebellar Ataxia 8 (SCA8) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by expansion of a trinucleotide repeat. We undertake a comparative genetic analysis among human populations and primate species in the normal variation range, where forces that shaped present diversity can be recognised. We determinate number of repeats of the short tandem repeat through allele length sizing and sequencing methods. Human allele distributions are very similar among populations, ruling out ethnicity as a genetic risk for allele expansion. Primate comparison shows human-specific features, with longer human alleles due to a novel variable trinucleotide repeat, not present in non-human primates, which increased the disease-causing expansion likelihood. SCA8 seems to be a human specific disease.
Alanine↗
Differences in HERV-K LTR insertions in orthologous loci of humans and great apes.
The classification of the long terminal repeats (LTRs) of the human endogenous retrovirus HERV-K (HML-2) family was refined according to diagnostic differences between the LTR sequences. The mutation rate was estimated to be approximately equal for LTRs belonging to different families and branches of human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs). An average mutation rate value was calculated based on differences between LTRs of the same HERV and was found to be 0.13% per million years (Myr). Using this value, the ages of different LTR groups belonging to the LTR HML-2 subfamily were found to vary from 3 to 50Myr. Orthologous potential LTR-containing loci from different primate species were PCR amplified using primers corresponding to the genomic sequences flanking LTR integration sites. This allowed us to calculate the phylogenetic times of LTR integrations in primate lineages in the course of the evolution and to demonstrate that they are in good agreement with the LTR ages calculated from the mutation rates. Human-specific integrations for some very young LTRs were demonstrated. The possibility of LTRs and HERVs involvement in the evolution of primates is discussed.
Animals↗
High mutation rates in human and ape pseudoautosomal genes.
It has been suggested that recombination may be mutagenic, which, if true, would inflate intraspecies diversity and interspecies silent divergence in regions of high recombination. Here, we test this hypothesis comparing human/orangutan genome-wide non-coding divergence (K) to that in the pseudoautosomal genes which were reported to recombine much more frequently than the rest of the genome. We demonstrate that, compared to the average human/orangutan non-coding divergence (K=3%), the substitution rate is significantly elevated in the introns of SHOX (K=5.7%), PPP2R3L (K=8.7%) and ASMT (K=6.5%) genes located in the human and orangutan Xp/Yp pseudoautosomal region (p-PAR), where recombination is over 20-fold higher than the genomic average. On the other hand, human/orangutan non-coding divergence at the Xp/Yp pseudoautosomal boundary (K=3.5%) and in the SYBL1 gene (K=2.7%), located in the human Xq/Yq pseudoautosomal region (q-PAR), where recombination is known to be less frequent than in p-PAR, was not significantly higher than the genome average. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that recombination may be mutagenic.
Acetylserotonin O-Methyltransferase↗
Differences in hypervariability within the retinoblastoma gene in the great apes.
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Animals↗
Going APE over ref-1.
The DNA base excision repair (BER) pathway is responsible for the repair of cellular alkylation and oxidative DNA damage. A crucial and the second step in the BER pathway involves the cleavage of baseless sites in DNA by an AP endonuclease. The major AP endonuclease in mammalian cells is Ape1/ref-1. Ape1/ref-1 is a multifunctional protein that is not only responsible for repair of AP sites, but also functions as a reduction-oxidation (redox) factor maintaining transcription factors in an active reduced state. Ape1/ref-1 has been shown to stimulate the DNA binding activity of numerous transcription factors that are involved in cancer promotion and progression such as Fos, Jun, NF(B, PAX, HIF-1(, HLF and p53. Ape1/ref-1 has also been implicated in the activation of bioreductive drugs which require reduction in order to be active and has been shown to interact with a subunit of the Ku antigen to act as a negative regulator of the parathyroid hormone promoter, as well as part of the HREBP transcription factor complex. Ape1/ref-1 levels have been found to be elevated in a number of cancers such as ovarian, cervical, prostate, rhabdomyosarcomas and germ cell tumors and correlated with the radiosensitivity of cervical cancers. In this review, we have attempted to try and assimilated as much data concerning Ape1/ref-1 and incorporate the rapidly growing information on Ape1/ref-1 in a wide variety of functions and systems.
Animals↗
Genetic relationships among the apes and humans.
Epistemological difficulties and contradictory sets of molecular genetic data show that the question 'What is our closest living relative?' is surprisingly difficult to answer decisively. It is highly likely that we have not a single closest relative but, at the genus level, two equally close ones.
Animals↗
Aping Jane Goodall: insights into human lymphatic filariasis.
The relationship between infection and disease has been a subject of intense debate in human filariasis. Most patients with chronic disease such as lymphedema or elephantiasis are free of demonstrable current infection. Based on cross-sectional data and a few assumptions and presumptions, two models of natural history of filariasis have been in vogue during the past two decades. The only (but arduous) way to understand the sequence of events is to follow up subjects with and without patent infections over a period of several years. This article offers critical comments and highlights the insights acquired from such studies.
Animals↗