Age-related changes in ovarian morphology from birth to menopause in the Japanese monkey,Macaca fuscata fuscata

Age-related changes in ovarian morphology were studied in female Japanese monkeys,Macaca fuscata fuscata. A total of 47 nonlactating females of various ages ranging from new-born to >28 yr old were used. Ovarian size increased during the first decade of life, reached a plateau at around 10 yr. This was followed by a gradual decline throughout the remaining life span. The ovarian cortex of new-born animals consisted of numerous clusters of mitotic primordial germ cells. Such mitotic germ cells were observed even in the ovary of 28-day-old animal, but were not found in any animal after 1.5 yr of age. Numbers of primordial follicles decreased exponentially with the advance of age, and only a few primordial follicles were observed after about 16 yr of age. The numbers of primary and tertiary follicles increased from ages 4 to 16 yr, with a peak at 8 to 10 yr, and then decreased gradually. Developing tertiary follicles were observed as early as 1.5 yr of age. About 40% of tertiary follicles were atretic follicles throughout life, and their size was similar to that of developing tertiary follicles. Corpora lutea or corpora albicantia were found in ovaries more than 4 yr old. Remnants of corpora lutea and corpora albicantia, together with thick-walled blood vessels and fibrosis, became apparent in ovaries after 16 yr, and were observed characteristically in ovaries over 26 yr of age. There was no significant difference in the number or in the size of tertiary follicles between the breeding and nonbreeding seasons.     

华南地区人口压力增长对猕猴（Macacaspp．）分布的影响

通过研究本世纪初和现今两个历史时期华南地区猕猴分布、人口和耕地变化发现,猕猴在本世纪初为随机分布,现今已为聚集分布．在现今生产力水平下,１８０人·ｋｍ－２是猕猴分布限量．本世纪初区内有猴分布的县（市）为６１％,现今仅为２３．４７％．２１世纪３０年代前后预计尚余１５．２％县（市）仍有猴分布,主要分布在湘西北、桂西及湘、桂、粤交界的南岭一带,琼西南尚余少数．     

Cloning of Macaque Monkeys by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

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梵净山黔金丝猴与藏酋猴冬春季生态位分化初探

同域物种的共存往往是通过生态位分化实现的,黔金丝猴（Rhinopithecus brelichi）和藏酋猴（Macaca thibetana）为梵净山同域分布物种。为了理解二者的生态位分化关系,2020年12月至2021年6月通过在梵净山保护区安放的24台红外相机进行冬春季的野外监测,发现有18台相机捕获到藏酋猴,4台相机捕获到黔金丝猴,有3台相机对二者均有捕获。总共获得了黔金丝猴的照片23张,事件发生8次;藏酋猴的照片373张,事件发生95次;未捕获到黔金丝猴和藏酋猴同一时间段出现。通过海拔高度、采食行为、出现时间这些数据对二者生态位分化进行了分析,得到了同域分布的这两种灵长类动物生态位分化模式。调查结果显示,虽然梵净山冬春季黔金丝猴和藏酋猴的分布区域存在部分重叠,但黔金丝猴活动高峰早于藏酋猴约2 h;黔金丝猴更倾向于树上取食,藏酋猴更倾向于地上取食,避免了直接在食物资源上的竞争。二者通过活动节律和觅食策略差异实现生态位分化,从而更好地适应生存环境,以实现同域共存状态。     

Macaques in China: Evolutionary dispersion and subsequent development

Depicting a taxonomic group's evolutionary trajectory as a function of changes in the geographical landscape and its historical distribution is critical for constructing informed conservation strategies. Based on fossil sites from the Pliocene to the Holocene, and historical records since 1175 AD, we established macaques’ dispersal pathways into and through China. These routes include internal pathways starting from the southeast corner of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Mts. Hengduan in western China, and the routes through the estuaries of the three major rivers (Yangtze, Yellow, and Pearl). Our results indicate that macaques used the three rivers and avoided the higher elevation of the plateaus to promote their radiation. They occupied the whole mainland and islands in the Pleistocene and experienced shrunken distribution in the Holocene due to climate changes and human-induced activities. A prominent China-wide reduction occurred between 1817 and 1917; and a remarkable retraction from central China happened between 1918 and 2018 following further eco-social development and human expansion in central China, particularly since the second half of the last century. Starting in 1175 there was a restriction of range to higher altitudes, so that macaques have contracted their range to the west, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Mts. Hengduan have become an important sanctuary. We predict that if the current climate and human-induced changes are not reversed by decisive conservation actions, macaques in east and central China will likely be extinct in the near future.     

猕猴血清B病毒抗体三种检测方法的比较

目的对B病毒（B virus）抗体检测的3种方法进行比较,寻求准确、可靠、经济的检疫方法。方法对以HSV-1为抗原的玻片酶免疫法、B病毒为抗原的玻片酶法（EIA）和酶联免疫吸附法（ELISA）的猕猴血清B病毒抗体检测结果进行比较。结果HSV-1为抗原的EIA与B病毒为抗原的EIA、ELISA检测结果符合率分别为97.7%和95.5%。结论HSV-1为抗原EIA的检测结果与B病毒抗原EIA和ELISA的检测结果一致性较好,可以做为初筛手段,且检测效果较好,投入资金相对最低,达到节约成本的目的。     

对猕猴嗅觉的研究

目的　测试猕猴———红面猴 (M .arctoides)和恒河猴 (M .mulatta)对花生香、香蕉香和体味的嗅觉阈限。方法　本研究采用以Laska设计的用于测试灵长类动物嗅觉的实验仪器为模板自制的实验仪器 ,通过嗅觉引导觅食的实验任务来测查猕猴的嗅觉阈限。结果　行为训练过程中 ,两只被试在 32 0个试次内均掌握了仪器操作规则 ;嗅觉测试中 ,红面猴 (盼盼 )对花生香的嗅觉阈限是 1∶4 0 0 0 ,恒河猴 (美子 )是 1∶6 0 0 0 ;对香蕉香 ,盼盼的觉察阈限为 1∶30 0 0 ,美子为 1∶1 0 0 0 0 0 ;美子对体味的觉察阈限接近 1∶1 0 0 0 0 0 0 ,而盼盼未完成此项实验。结论　猕猴的嗅觉能力并不像想象中的那样差 ,同时进一步验证了Laska的实验仪器和实验范式的准确性和适用性     

Percentage ash content of nonhuman primate long limb bones

Trotter and Hixon ('76) and Vose and Roach ('72) presented conflicting data about percentage ash content of the long limb bones of M. mulatta and M. nemestrina. The suggestion of Trotter and Hixon ('76) that this discrepancy was due to methods of preparing the bone prior to ashing, rather than to species differences, was tested using data collected by Gong ('72) on the volumetric composition of nonhuman primate bone. Masses of the various chemical fractions of bone reported by Gong ('72) were used to compute ash content as a percentage of total dry weight and ash content as a percentage of fat-free dry weight. Good agreement was found between ash content as a percentage of total dry weight and the data of Vose and Roach ('72); good agreement was also found between ash content as a percentage of fat-free dry weight and the data of Trotter and Hixon ('76). This suggests that the data of Vose and Roach ('72) conflict with those of Trotter and Hixon ('76) because Vose and Roach ('72) failed to defat the bones prior to ashing. No actual species differences exist in the ash content of bones of M. mulatta and M. nemestrina. The data of Trotter and Hixon ('76) are most likely a more adequate reflection of both the magnitude and the regional similarity of ash content in nonhuman primate bone.     

Unraveling the effect of genomic structural changes in the rhesus macaque - implications for the adaptive role of inversions

Background

By reshuffling genomes, structural genomic reorganizations provide genetic variation on which natural selection can work. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this process has been a long-standing question in evolutionary biology. In this context, our purpose in this study is to characterize the genomic regions involved in structural rearrangements between human and macaque genomes and determine their influence on meiotic recombination as a way to explore the adaptive role of genome shuffling in mammalian evolution.

Results

We first constructed a highly refined map of the structural rearrangements and evolutionary breakpoint regions in the human and rhesus macaque genomes based on orthologous genes and whole-genome sequence alignments. Using two different algorithms, we refined the genomic position of known rearrangements previously reported by cytogenetic approaches and described new putative micro-rearrangements (inversions and indels) in both genomes. A detailed analysis of the rhesus macaque genome showed that evolutionary breakpoints are in gene-rich regions, being enriched in GO terms related to immune system. We also identified defense-response genes within a chromosome inversion fixed in the macaque lineage, underlying the relevance of structural genomic changes in evolutionary and/or adaptation processes. Moreover, by combining in silico and experimental approaches, we studied the recombination pattern of specific chromosomes that have suffered rearrangements between human and macaque lineages.

Conclusions

Our data suggest that adaptive alleles – in this case, genes involved in the immune response – might have been favored by genome rearrangements in the macaque lineage.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-530) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.