Genetic studies of serum transferrins of free-ranging rhesus macaques of Cayo Santiago, Macaca mulatta (Zimmerman 1780).

Abstract

AbstractTransferrin phenotypes of plasma from 687 semi‐free‐ranging Macaca mulatta living on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico, were determined by starch‐gel electrophoresis and autoradiography. Fifteen phenotypes, homozygous or heterozygous products of six codominant autosomal alleles, were present in the population. The 687 animals, prior to March 1973, were divided into eight troops plus peripheral males. By March 1, 1973 the size of the population was reduced to 333 animals, consisting of four troops plus peripheral males. The distributions of transferrin phenotypes and allele frequencies were determined for the population of 687 animals and for 287 of the March 1973 population of 333 animals. Gametic ratios of 382 offspring of 126 females were enumerated. Statistical tests of homogeneity and equilibrium were applied to the data. The results of these tests suggest that, with only a few exceptions, the Cayo Santiago macaques, although divided into social groups, form a single population, and the results are in accord with behavioral observations. The authors suggest that the data on transferrins provide a good baseline for future genetic and ethological studies of evolutionary processes in a population of nonhuman primates.