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Animals : An Open Access Journal From... Sep 2022Prolactin (PRL) is a hormone expressed in lactotrophs cells of the pituitary gland in primates. Extra pituitary expression of PRL has been reported, including the eye;...
UNLABELLED
Prolactin (PRL) is a hormone expressed in lactotrophs cells of the pituitary gland in primates. Extra pituitary expression of PRL has been reported, including the eye; however, expression in the developing eye of primates is limited. The aim of the study was determining the expression of and receptor () (mRNAs and proteins) in adult and fetal baboon () ocular tissues.
METHODS
We analyzed PRL and PRLR in baboon eyes tissues by immunofluorescence. The mRNAs of and were detected by RT-PCR, cDNA was cloned, and sequenced. Furthermore, we performed a phylogenetic analysis to identify the evolutionary forces that underlie the divergence of and primate genes.
RESULTS
We observed the expression of PRL and PRLR (mRNAs and proteins) in all retinal cell lineages of fetal and adult baboon. and fit the hypothesis of evolutionary purifying gene selection.
CONCLUSIONS
mRNA and protein of PRL and PRLR are expressed in fetal and adult baboon retinal tissue. PRL may trigger autocrine and paracrine-specific actions in retinal cell lines.
PubMed: 36078009
DOI: 10.3390/ani12172288 -
Current Biology : CB May 2008
Topics: Africa; Animals; Ecosystem; Female; Male; Papio hamadryas; Social Behavior
PubMed: 18492465
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.02.074 -
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 -
Scientific Reports Apr 2020Language processing involves the ability to master supra-regular grammars, that go beyond the level of complexity of regular grammars. This ability has been hypothesized...
Language processing involves the ability to master supra-regular grammars, that go beyond the level of complexity of regular grammars. This ability has been hypothesized to be a uniquely human capacity. Our study probed baboons' capacity to learn two supra-regular grammars of different levels of complexity: a context-free grammar generating sequences following a mirror structure (e.g., AB | BA, ABC | CBA) and a context-sensitive grammar generating sequences following a repeat structure (e.g., AB | AB, ABC | ABC), the latter requiring greater computational power to be processed. Fourteen baboons were tested in a prediction task, requiring them to track a moving target on a touchscreen. In distinct experiments, sequences of target locations followed one of the above two grammars, with rare violations. Baboons showed slower response times when violations occurred in mirror sequences, but did not react to violations in repeat sequences, suggesting that they learned the context-free (mirror) but not the context-sensitive (repeat) grammar. By contrast, humans tested with the same task learned both grammars. These data suggest a difference in sensitivity in baboons between a context-free and a context-sensitive grammar.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Learning; Papio papio; Pattern Recognition, Visual
PubMed: 32355252
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64244-5 -
Journal of Infection and Public Health 2019Rabies is a fatal viral disease that continues to threaten human and animal health in endemic countries. Rabies is endemic in animals in the Arabian Peninsula. Although...
BACKGROUND
Rabies is a fatal viral disease that continues to threaten human and animal health in endemic countries. Rabies is endemic in animals in the Arabian Peninsula. Although Saudi Arabia is the largest country on the Peninsula, little has been reported in the country about rabies situation.
METHODS
A total of 199 animals suspected of rabies from 2010 to 2017, were examined for rabies infection using the Direct Fluorescent Antibody Test (DFAT).
RESULTS
There were 158 (79.4%) positive cases of rabies of the examined animals, Most positive cases were found in Al-Qassim (63), Eastern region (48), Riyadh (25) and Al-Madina (10). Rabies was diagnosed in Procavia capensis and monkeys (Papio hamadryas hamadryas) in Saudi Arabia for the first time. In addition, infected livestock, especially camels, sheep and goat that pose a risk to veterinarians and farmers which increases the risk of potential zoonosis of rabies in Saudi Arabia.
CONCLUSION
These findings indicate that Rabies in Saudi Arabia remain a public health problem and dogs and camels are the main reservoir and continue to present health risks for both human and animals throughout the country, underscoring the importance of applying rabies control measures to animals and humans.
Topics: Animals; Camelus; Disease Reservoirs; Dogs; Endemic Diseases; Goats; Humans; Livestock; Papio; Public Health; Rabies; Saudi Arabia; Sheep; Zoonoses
PubMed: 31079702
DOI: 10.1016/j.jiph.2018.10.005 -
Scientific Reports Apr 2021Female primates signal impending ovulation with a suite of sexual signals. Studies of these signals have focussed on visual, and to a lesser extent, acoustic signals,...
Female primates signal impending ovulation with a suite of sexual signals. Studies of these signals have focussed on visual, and to a lesser extent, acoustic signals, neglecting olfactory signals. We aimed to investigate the information content of female olfactory signals in captive olive baboons (Papio anubis) and relate these to the female fertile period. We studied eight adult females living in four groups at the CNRS Station de Primatologie, Rousset-sur-Arc, France. We used vaginal cytology to detect ovulation. We investigated the volatile component of odour signals using solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We found a total of 74 volatile compounds, of which we tentatively identified 25, including several ketones, alcohols, aldehydes, terpenes, volatile fatty acids and hydrocarbons that have been identified in odour profiles of other primates. Our results show that vaginal odour intensity differs with sexual cycle stage suggesting that odour might play a role in signalling female baboon fertility. We found differences in vaginal odour between females living in all-female and in mixed sex groups but we could not distinguish the effects of group composition, female age and identity. This study of olfactory signalling improves our understanding of how female primates advertise their sexual receptivity.
Topics: Animals; Female; Fertility; Odorants; Olfactory Perception; Ovulation; Papio anubis; Sexual Behavior, Animal; Vagina; Volatile Organic Compounds
PubMed: 33875713
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-87893-6 -
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 -
Genome Biology and Evolution Jun 2017The genus of Papio (baboon) has six recognized species separated into Northern and Southern clades, each comprised of three species distributed across the African...
The genus of Papio (baboon) has six recognized species separated into Northern and Southern clades, each comprised of three species distributed across the African continent. Geographic origin and phenotypic variants such as coat color and body size have commonly been used to identify different species. The existence of multiple hybrid zones, both ancient and current, have complicated efforts to characterize the phylogeny of Papio baboons. More recently, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome genetic markers have been utilized for species identification with particular focus on the hybrid zones. Alu elements accumulate in a random manner and are a novel source of identical by descent variation with known ancestral states for inferring population genetic and phylogenetic relationships. As part of the Baboon Genome Analysis Consortium, we assembled an Alu insertion polymorphism database of nearly 500 Papio-lineage specific insertions representing all six species and performed population structure and phylogenetic analyses. In this study, we have selected a subset of 48 species indicative Alu insertions and demonstrate their utility as genetic systems for the identification of baboon species within Papio. Individual elements from the panel are easy to genotype and can be used in a hierarchical fashion based on the original level of uncertainty. This Alu-48 panel should serve as a valuable tool during the maintenance of pedigree records in captive populations and assist in the forensic identification of fossils and potential hybrids in the wild.
Topics: Alu Elements; Animals; DNA, Mitochondrial; Female; Gene Frequency; Genetic Variation; Genotype; Male; Papio; Pedigree; Sexual Behavior, Animal
PubMed: 28854642
DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evx130 -
Canadian Journal of Surgery. Journal... Feb 1999
Topics: Animals; Ethics, Medical; Female; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Male; Pan troglodytes; Papio; Tissue Donors; Transplantation, Heterologous
PubMed: 10071577
DOI: No ID Found -
Mobile DNA 2019Baboons (genus ) and geladas () are now generally recognized as close phylogenetic relatives, though morphologically quite distinct and generally classified in separate...
BACKGROUND
Baboons (genus ) and geladas () are now generally recognized as close phylogenetic relatives, though morphologically quite distinct and generally classified in separate genera. Primate specific retrotransposons are well-established genomic markers for the study of phylogenetic and population genetic relationships. We previously reported a computational reconstruction of phylogeny using large-scale whole genome sequence (WGS) analysis of insertion polymorphisms. Recently, high coverage WGS was generated for The objective of this study was to apply the high-throughput "poly-Detect" method to computationally determine the number of insertion polymorphisms shared by and , and vice versa, by each individual species and . Secondly, we performed locus-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays on a diverse DNA panel to complement the computational data.
RESULTS
We identified 27,700 insertions from WGS that were also present among six species, with nearly half (12,956) remaining unfixed among 12 individuals. Similarly, each of the six species had species-indicative insertions that were also present in . In general, shared more insertion polymorphisms with than did any of the other five species. PCR-based genotype data provided additional support for the computational findings.
CONCLUSIONS
Our discovery that several thousand insertion polymorphisms are shared by and baboons suggests a much more permeable reproductive barrier between the two genera then previously suspected. Their intertwined evolution likely involves a long history of admixture, gene flow and incomplete lineage sorting.
PubMed: 31788036
DOI: 10.1186/s13100-019-0187-y