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Journal of Medical Primatology Jun 2016Knowledge of the composition of vaginal microbial ecosystem is essential for understanding the etiology, prevention, and treatment of vaginal diseases. A baboon model...
BACKGROUND
Knowledge of the composition of vaginal microbial ecosystem is essential for understanding the etiology, prevention, and treatment of vaginal diseases. A baboon model has been used to provide detailed understanding of reproductive physiology and immunology applicable to women. However, little is known about the composition of its vaginal microbial ecosystem.
METHODS
Gram stain and Nugent scores were used for assessment of baboon vaginal microbial flora. Biochemical identification and analysis of isolates were performed using the api(®) kits and identification software.
RESULTS
Species of Lactobacilli, Staphylococci, Clostridia, Bacilli, Corynebacteria, Gram-negative rods, other Gram-positive rods, cocci and Candida, were isolated. Healthy vaginal microbiota consisted mainly of lactobacillus morphotypes. Animals with high Nugent scores had increased number of Gram-positive cocci and variable rods, with increased number of Gram-negative morphotypes.
CONCLUSIONS
The baboon vaginal microbiota is heterogeneous in terms of species composition and is typified by a scarcity of lactobacilli.
Topics: Animals; Bacteria; Candida; Female; Microbiota; Papio anubis; Vagina
PubMed: 27198467
DOI: 10.1111/jmp.12217 -
Epilepsy Research Mar 2016Reflex seizures are epileptic events triggered by specific motor, sensory or cognitive stimulation. This comprehensive narrative review focuses on the role of genetic... (Review)
Review
INTRODUCTION
Reflex seizures are epileptic events triggered by specific motor, sensory or cognitive stimulation. This comprehensive narrative review focuses on the role of genetic determinants in humans and animal models of reflex seizures and epilepsies.
METHODS
References were mainly identified through MEDLINE searches until August 2015 and backtracking of references in pertinent studies.
RESULTS
Autosomal dominant inheritance with reduced penetrance was proven in several families with photosensitivity. Molecular genetic studies on EEG photoparoxysmal response identified putative loci on chromosomes 6, 7, 13 and 16 that seem to correlate with peculiar seizure phenotype. No specific mutation has been found in Papio papio baboon, although a genetic etiology is likely. Mutation in synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A was found in another animal model of photosensitivity (Fayoumi chickens). Autosomal dominant inheritance with incomplete penetrance overlapping with a genetic background for IGE was proposed for some families with primary reading epilepsy. Musicogenic seizures usually occur in patients with focal symptomatic or cryptogenic epilepsies, but they have been reported in rare genetic epilepsies such as Dravet syndrome. A single LGI1 mutation has been described in a girl with seizures evoked by auditory stimuli. Interestingly, heterozygous knockout (Lgi1(+/-)) mice show susceptibility to sound-triggered seizures. Moreover, in Frings and Black Swiss mice, the spontaneous mutations of MASS1 and JAMS1 genes, respectively, have been linked to audiogenic seizures. Eating seizures usually occur in symptomatic epilepsies but evidences for a genetic susceptibility were mainly provided by family report from Sri Lanka. Eating seizures were also reported in rare patients with MECP2 duplication or mutation. Hot water seizures are genetically heterogeneous but two loci at chromosomes 4 and 10 were identified in families with likely autosomal dominant inheritance. Startle-induced seizures usually occur in patients with symptomatic epilepsies but have also been reported in the setting chromosomal disorders or genetically inherited lysosomal storage diseases.
DISCUSSION
The genetic background of reflex seizures and epilepsies is heterogeneous and mostly unknown with no major gene identified in humans. The benefits offered by next-generation sequencing technologies should be merged with increasing information on animal models that represent an useful tool to study the mechanism underlying epileptogenesis. Finally, we expect that genetic studies will lead to a better understanding of the multiple factors involved in the pathophysiology of reflex seizures, and eventually to develop preventive strategies focused on seizure control and therapy optimization.
Topics: Animals; Disease Models, Animal; Epilepsy, Reflex; Humans; MEDLINE; Seizures
PubMed: 26875109
DOI: 10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2016.01.010 -
American Journal of Physiology. Lung... Dec 2014Much of the progress in improved neonatal care, particularly management of underdeveloped preterm lungs, has been aided by investigations of multiple animal models,... (Review)
Review
Much of the progress in improved neonatal care, particularly management of underdeveloped preterm lungs, has been aided by investigations of multiple animal models, including the neonatal baboon (Papio species). In this article we highlight how the preterm baboon model at both 140 and 125 days gestation (term equivalent 185 days) has advanced our understanding and management of the immature human infant with neonatal lung disease. Not only is the 125-day baboon model extremely relevant to the condition of bronchopulmonary dysplasia but there are also critical neurodevelopmental and other end-organ pathological features associated with this model not fully discussed in this limited forum. We also describe efforts to incorporate perinatal infection into these preterm models, both fetal and neonatal, and particularly associated with Ureaplasma/Mycoplasma organisms. Efforts to rekindle the preterm primate model for future evaluations of therapies such as stem cell replacement, early lung recruitment interventions coupled with noninvasive surfactant and high-frequency nasal ventilation, and surfactant therapy coupled with antioxidant or anti-inflammatory medications, to name a few, should be undertaken.
Topics: Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Antioxidants; Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia; Disease Models, Animal; Humans; Inflammation; Papio; Pulmonary Surfactants; Respiration, Artificial; Ureaplasma; Ureaplasma Infections
PubMed: 25281639
DOI: 10.1152/ajplung.00171.2014 -
Primates; Journal of Primatology Jul 2023In this "tale" I summarize the major landmarks of my 50-year career watching wild olive baboons (Papio anubis). I review some major discoveries, like baboon hunting and... (Review)
Review
In this "tale" I summarize the major landmarks of my 50-year career watching wild olive baboons (Papio anubis). I review some major discoveries, like baboon hunting and baboon social strategies of competition and defense, that only a creature with a "mind" could manage. My efforts expanded beyond science to include community-based conservation because quite early on these baboons experienced many of the threats of the Anthropocene. My research expanded to include studying crop-raiding by naïve groups of baboons, the first scientific translocation of a primate species, and a detour to study the invasion of a non-indigenous cactus, Opuntia stricta. Throughout I worked with local communities to find solutions to problems that the baboons created, and also to develop new options for their livelihoods. As the baboon research became a long-term project, it depended on a team of Kenyan research assistants who made possible the simultaneous monitoring of up to six baboon troops as well as extensive ecological monitoring. Knowing the ecology, including the impact of the sedentarization of pastoralists in the area, meant we could interpret the process of invasion by a non-indigenous cactus for the first time. Ecological periods allowed comparisons of the same troop over time and different baboon groups during the same ecological phase. Although I began my work before hypothesis testing was the preferred approach, once the paradigm changed, I continued to study and learn what matters to baboons from their perspective. As a result of observing them for 50 years, the baboons showed me that evolution often does not work the way that I had been taught, and it took all my detours and studies to convince me that anecdotes, when they are systematic and comparative, are not stories to be discounted, but evidence, much like Darwin's natural history. Natural history can reassemble the pieces that quantitative hypothesis testing has teased apart to provide its larger meaning. Today, the lone scientist, like me, is an anachronism because no one person has expertise in the many fields needed to understand and save the primates we care about.
Topics: Animals; Papio; Kenya; Papio anubis
PubMed: 37165179
DOI: 10.1007/s10329-023-01060-1 -
ELife Apr 2021In a population of wild baboons, a new way to assess biological age reveals a surprising effect of social hierarchy.
In a population of wild baboons, a new way to assess biological age reveals a surprising effect of social hierarchy.
Topics: Animals; Hierarchy, Social; Papio
PubMed: 33929318
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.68790 -
Science Advances Jan 2019Recent studies suggest that closely related species can accumulate substantial genetic and phenotypic differences despite ongoing gene flow, thus challenging traditional...
Recent studies suggest that closely related species can accumulate substantial genetic and phenotypic differences despite ongoing gene flow, thus challenging traditional ideas regarding the genetics of speciation. Baboons (genus ) are Old World monkeys consisting of six readily distinguishable species. Baboon species hybridize in the wild, and prior data imply a complex history of differentiation and introgression. We produced a reference genome assembly for the olive baboon () and whole-genome sequence data for all six extant species. We document multiple episodes of admixture and introgression during the radiation of baboons, thus demonstrating their value as a model of complex evolutionary divergence, hybridization, and reticulation. These results help inform our understanding of similar cases, including modern humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans, and other ancient hominins.
Topics: Animals; Base Sequence; Biological Evolution; Female; Gene Flow; Genomics; Haplotypes; Humans; Hybridization, Genetic; Male; Papio; Phylogeny; Polymorphism, Genetic; Whole Genome Sequencing
PubMed: 30854422
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aau6947 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Jan 2022Conventions form an essential part of human social and cultural behaviour and may also be important to other animal societies. Yet, despite the wealth of evidence that...
Conventions form an essential part of human social and cultural behaviour and may also be important to other animal societies. Yet, despite the wealth of evidence that has accumulated for culture in non-human animals, we know surprisingly little about non-human conventions beyond a few rare examples. We follow the literature in behavioural ecology and evolution and define conventions as systematic behaviours that solve a coordination problem in which two or more individuals need to display complementary behaviour to obtain a mutually beneficial outcome. We start by discussing the literature on conventions in non-human primates from this perspective and conclude that all the ingredients for conventions to emerge are present and therefore that they ought to be more frequently observed. We then probe the emergence of conventions by using a unique novel experimental system in which pairs of Guinea baboons () can voluntarily participate together in touchscreen-based cognitive testing and we show that conventions readily emerge in our experimental set-up and that they share three fundamental properties of human conventions (arbitrariness, stability and efficiency). These results question the idea that observational learning, and imitation in particular, is necessary to establish conventions; they suggest that positive reinforcement is enough. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines'.
Topics: Animals; Language; Learning; Papio papio; Primates; Social Behavior
PubMed: 34894743
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0310 -
Primates; Journal of Primatology Jan 2020In a variety of mammalian species, mothers and others care for and/or carry deceased newborns, and sometimes other conspecifics. The rationale for such behavior remains... (Review)
Review
In a variety of mammalian species, mothers and others care for and/or carry deceased newborns, and sometimes other conspecifics. The rationale for such behavior remains elusive. Based upon field observations of olive baboon (Papio anubis), African elephant (Loxodonta africana), and Thornicroft's giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) responses to recently dead conspecifics, combined with reports in the literature, a hypothesis is proposed to account for this activity. Among female mammals, lifetime reproductive success is more dependent upon rearing, than production, of offspring. The successful nurturing of progeny is associated with a strong maternal-offspring bond. One of the most important chemicals involved in both lactation and mother-infant bonding is oxytocin, a tiny molecule that has a lengthy evolutionary history and is implicated in the formation of social bonds across mammals. Evolution has extended the impact of oxytocin by adopting it beyond the original mother-infant bond to the establishment of social bonds that are required among group-living animals. Hence, sociality is a consequence of the same fundamental biological mediator of mother-offspring bonding, and this intricate connection between physiology and behavior has produced a situation where sometimes animals will care for or carry dead companions. Ways to test this hypothesis, as well as a potential way to refute it, are proposed.
Topics: Animals; Biological Evolution; Death; Elephants; Giraffes; Mammals; Object Attachment; Papio anubis; Social Behavior
PubMed: 30895413
DOI: 10.1007/s10329-019-00722-3 -
American Journal of Physical... Mar 2021Incomplete and/or biased sampling either on a taxonomic or geographic level can lead to delusive phylogenetic and phylogeographic inferences. However, a complete...
OBJECTIVES
Incomplete and/or biased sampling either on a taxonomic or geographic level can lead to delusive phylogenetic and phylogeographic inferences. However, a complete taxonomic and geographical sampling is often and for various reasons impossible, particularly for widespread taxa such as baboons (Papio spp.). Previous studies on baboon phylogeography identified several sampling gaps, some of which we fill by investigating additional material including samples from museum specimens.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We generated 10 new mitochondrial genomes either via conventional PCR and subsequent Sanger sequencing from two blood samples or via high-throughput shotgun sequencing from degraded DNA extracted from eight museum specimens. Phylogenetic relationships and divergence times among baboon lineages were determined using maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inferences.
RESULTS
We identified new mitochondrial lineages in baboons from Central Africa (Chad, the Central African Republic), from the Mahale, and the Udzungwa Mountains (Tanzania), with the latter likely representing a case of mitochondrial capture from sympatric kipunjis (Rungwecebus kipunji). We also found that the mitochondrial clades of olive baboons found in Ivory Coast and Tanzania extend into Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo, respectively. Moreover, an olive baboon from Sierra Leone carries a mitochondrial haplotype usually found in Guinea baboons, suggesting gene flow between these two species.
DISCUSSION
The extension of the geographic sampling by including samples from areas difficult to visit or from populations that are most likely extirpated has improved the geographic and temporal resolution of the mitochondrial phylogeny of baboons considerably. Our study also shows the great value of museum material for genetic analyses even when DNA is highly degraded.
Topics: Africa South of the Sahara; Animals; Female; Genome, Mitochondrial; Haplotypes; Male; Papio; Phylogeography
PubMed: 33244782
DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24186 -
Parasitology Jun 2015Cross-species infection among humans, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and baboons (Papio spp.) is potentially a significant public health issue in Africa, and of concern...
Cross-species infection among humans, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and baboons (Papio spp.) is potentially a significant public health issue in Africa, and of concern in the conservation of P. troglodytes. However, to date, no statistical comparisons have been made between the prevalence, richness and composition of parasite communities in sympatric populations of baboons and P. troglodytes. We compared parasite communities in sympatric P. troglodytes and Papio papio living in a wilderness site, in the Republic of Senegal, West Africa. We asked whether, in the absence of humans, there are significant differences between these hosts in their interactions with gastrointestinal parasites. We tested whether host, location, or time of collection accounted for variation in prevalence, richness and community composition, and compared prevalence across six studies. We concluded that, despite being closely related, there are significant differences between these two hosts with respect to their parasite communities. At our study site, prevalence of Balantidium, Trichuris and Watsonius was higher in P. papio. Papio papio harboured more parasites per host, and we found evidence of a positive association between Trichuris and Balantidium in P. troglodytes but not P. papio.
Topics: Animals; Balantidiasis; Balantidium; Feces; Gastrointestinal Tract; Host Specificity; Pan troglodytes; Papio; Paramphistomatidae; Prevalence; Primate Diseases; Seasons; Senegal; Sympatry; Time Factors; Trematode Infections; Trichuriasis; Trichuris
PubMed: 25731985
DOI: 10.1017/S0031182015000104