Ape Lineages Research Articles

Fixation times of retroposons in the ribosomal DNA spacer of human and other primates.

We have investigated the presence/absence of two types of retroposed sequences found in human ribosomal DNA in equivalent positions in chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, gibbon, and rhesus monkey rDNA. These sequences are one pseudogene derived from the single-copy cdc27hs gene and seven complete Alu elements. The 2-kb pseudogene is present in the apes but not in Old World monkeys, indicating fixation in an ape ancestor. Five of the Alu elements are shared by the whole set of primates studied, indicating insertion and fixation prior to the split of the ape and Old World monkey lineages. One is absent only from the rhesus monkey rDNA, and another is absent from both gibbon and rhesus rDNA, indicating fixation at different times in primate evolutionary history. Since branching times for the primate phylogenetic tree are known from a combination of the fossil record and multiple molecular data sets, it is possible to compare Alu fixation times determined from the phylogenetic information with those calculated from Alu element mutation rates.

Fetal recruitment of anthropoid γ-globin genes: Findings from phylogenetic analyses involving the 5′-flanking sequences of the ψγ 1 globin gene of spider monkey Ateles geoffroyi

We determined the nucleotide sequence of a 2.5 kb DNA fragment (1 kb is 10 3 base-pairs) that includes exon 1, intron 1 and about 1.4 kb of 5′-flanking DNA of the spider monkey γ 1-globin pseudogene locus and compared this sequence to its homologues from other primates and rabbit. This region of the γ 1 locus of spider monkey still retains conserved regulatory elements, suggesting that it became a pseudogene late in New World monkey phylogeny. In the 250 base-pair region immediately 5′ from the transcription start site where many known regulatory elements are located, a higher rate of nucleotide substitutions occurred in the ancestral anthropoid (human, ape and monkey) lineage than in the prosimian (galago) lineage, as was also the case for non-synonymous substitutions in the coding region. The opposite pattern was observed for most other non-coding regions and for synonymous substitutions. These substitution patterns correlate with the embryonic-to-fetal transformation of the γ-globin genes of the ancestral anthropoids. Analysis of the 5′-flanking sequences suggests that 11 gene conversion events have occurred in the anthropoid γ-gene lineages. In the parts of the 5′-flanking region where no gene conversions have been detected, γ 2-gene sequences have accumulated more nucleotide changes than γ 1, which suggests that the γ 2 gene was the more redundant duplicate that may have accumulated first the nucleotide changes responsible for the anthropoid fetal pattern of γ-globin gene expression.

Mhc-DRB genes of the pigtail macaque (Macaca nemestrina): implications for the evolution of human DRB genes.

The DRB family of human class II major histocompatibility complex (Mhc) loci is unusual in that individuals differ in the number and combination of genes (haplotypes) they carry. Indications are that both the allelic and haplotype polymorphisms of the DRB loci predate speciation. Searching for the evolutionary origins of these polymorphisms, we have sequenced five DRB clones isolated from a cDNA library of a pigtail macaque (Macaca nemestrina) B lymphocyte line. The clones represent five different genes which we designate Mane-DRB*01-Mane-DRB*05. The genes appears to be approximately equidistant from each other, so that allelic relationships between them cannot be established on the basis of the sequence data alone. If positions coding for the peptide-binding region of the class II beta chains are eliminated from sequence comparisons, the Mane-DRB genes appear to be most closely related to the human (HLA) DRB1 genes of the DRw52 group. We interpret this finding to indicate that the ancestral gene of the DRw52 group of human DRB1 alleles separated from the rest of the HLA-DRB1 alleles before the separation of the Old World monkeys (Cercopithecoidea) from the apes (Hominoidea) in the early Oligocene. After this separation, the ancestral DRB1 gene of the DRw52 group duplicated in the Old World monkey lineage to give rise to genes at three loci at least, while in the ape lineage this gene may have remained single and diverged into a number of alleles instead. These findings suggest that some of the polymorphism currently present at the DRB1 locus is greater than 35 Myr old.

Evolution of the pseudoautosomal boundary in old world monkeys and great apes

Mammalian sex chromosomes are divided into sex-specific and pseudoautosomal regions. Sequences in the pseudoautosomal region recombine between the sex chromosomes; the sex-specific sequences normally do not. The interface between sex-specific and pseudoautosomal sequences is the pseudoautosomal boundary. The boundary is the centromeric limit to recombination in the pseudoautosomal region. In man, an Alu repeat element is found inserted at the boundary on the Y chromosome. In the evolutionary comparison conducted here, the Alu repeat element is found at the Y boundary in great apes, but it is not found there in two Old World monkeys. During the evolution of the Old World monkey and great ape lineages, homology between the sex chromosomes was maintained by recombination in the sequences telomeric to the Alu insertion site. The Alu repeat element did not create the present-day boundary; instead, it inserted at the preexisting boundary after the Old World monkey and great ape lineages diverged.

Genome size and «C-heterochromatic-DNA» in man and the african apes

The genome sizes and the amounts of DNA after C-banding pretreatments (C-heterochromatic DNA) were measured by quantitative cytochemical methods in man and the African apes,Gorilla gorilla andPan troglodytes. As evaluated by flow cytometry on propidium-iodide-stained lymphocytes, gorilla and chimpanzee have genome sizes larger than man. On the basis of the different resistance of metaphase chromosome DNA to the C-banding procedure, two genome compartments were defined, i.e.,C-heterochromatic-DNA andeuchromatic-DNA. The latter proved to be fairly constant in man and the African apes (as well as in two hylobatid species), whereas the variable amounts ofC-heterochromatic-DNA account well for the interspecific differences of genome size among the hominoid species studied so far. During karyotype diversification, quantitative changes (with either gains or losses) ofC-heterochromatic-DNA seem to have taken place independently in the hylobatid and the man/African ape lineages.

The current source of human Alu retroposons is a conserved gene shared with Old World monkey.

A significant fraction of human Alu repeated sequences are members of the precise, recently inserted class. A cloned member of this class has been used as a probe for interspecies hybridization and thermal stability determination. The probe was reassociated with human, mandrill, and spider monkey DNA under conditions such that only almost perfectly matching duplexes could form. Equally precise hybrids were formed with human and mandrill DNA (Old World monkey) but not with spider monkey DNA (New World). These measurements as well as reassociation kinetics show the presence in mandrill DNA of many precise class Alu sequences that are very similar or identical in quantity and sequence to those in human DNA. Human and mandrill are moderately distant species with a single-copy DNA divergence of about 6%. Nevertheless, their recently inserted Alu sequences arise by retroposition of transcripts of source genes with nearly identical sequences. Apparently a gene present in our common ancestor at the time of branching was inherited and highly conserved in sequence in both the lineage of Old World monkeys and the lineage of apes and man.

Nature and origin of bipedalism in primates

The differences and similarities characterizing apes and humans are the inevitable and predictable consequence of both groups having diverged from a common ancestor. An important question to ask is what prompted the change from quadrupedalism to bipedalism, probably at the time of the divergence of the ape and human lineages. Or did it occur before the split? What are the advantages and disadvantages of bipedal walking? An evaluation of the origin of bipedalism requires a knowledge of the distinctive skeletal and locomotor features of man as a biped in contrast to quadrupeds. Fossil hominid footprints give an indication of the bipedal plantigrade propulsive striding of the protohominids.

Cladistic relationships of extant and fossil hominoids

There is general agreement that the hominoid primates form a monophyletic group, that the extant great apes and humans form a second clade within that group with the gibbons as the sister group, and that the African apes and humans form a third clade. Although it has recently been proposed that humans and orang utans are sister taxa and also that the great apes form a clade to the exclusion of humans, our analysis, particularly of the molecular evidence, supports the existence of an African ape and human clade. The major problem in hominoid phylogeny at present is the relationships of the species within this clade: morphological data generally support the existence of an African ape clade which is the sister group to humans; some molecular data also support this conclusion, but most molecular evidence indicates the existence of a chimpanzee/human clade. We have cladistically re-analysed the DNA and protein sequence data for which apomorphic character states can be assessed. It is clear that there is a high degree of homoplasy whichever branching pattern is produced, with some characters supporting the existence of a chimpanzee/human clade and others supporting an African ape clade. When the cladistic analyses of morphological and molecular data are combined we believe that the most parsimonious interpretation of the data is that the African apes form a clade which is the sister taxon of the human (i.e., Australopithecus, Homo and Paranthropus) clade. This paper is not intended as a survey of all hominoid fossils but as a study of branching points in hominoid evolution and fossils are included which are relevant to this branching pattern. The analysis of fossil taxa in this study leads us to conclude that Proconsul is the sister taxon to the later Hominoidea. A number of middle Miocene forms such as Dryopithecus, Kenyapithecus, Heliopithecus and Afropithecus are shown to share derived characters with great apes and humans and provide evidence for the divergence of that clade from the gibbon lineage prior to 18 Ma. The position that Sivapithecus represents the sister group of the orang utan clade is supported here and shows that the orang utan lineage had diverged from the African ape and human lineage prior to 11·5 Ma. There is unfortunately no definitive fossil cvidence on branching sequences within the African ape and human clade, although a new specimen from Samburu, Kenya may be related to the gorilla.