scholarly journals Chimpanzee fathers bias their behaviour towards their offspring

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 160441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carson M. Murray ◽  
Margaret A. Stanton ◽  
Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf ◽  
Emily E. Wroblewski ◽  
Anne E. Pusey
Keyword(s):  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Mating Effort ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
Paternal Investment ◽  
Hominin Evolution ◽  
Lactating Mothers ◽  
Paternal Effort ◽  
Effort Hypothesis

Promiscuous mating was traditionally thought to curtail paternal investment owing to the potential costs of providing care to unrelated infants. However, mounting evidence suggests that males in some promiscuous species can recognize offspring. In primates, evidence for paternal care exists in promiscuous Cercopithecines, but less is known about these patterns in other taxa. Here, we examine two hypotheses for paternal associations with lactating mothers in eastern chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii ): paternal effort, whereby males associate and interact more with their own infants, and mating effort, whereby males invest in mothers and offspring for mating privileges. We found that fathers associated more with their offspring than they did with non-kin infants, particularly early in life when infanticide risk is highest. Additionally, fathers and their infant offspring interacted more than expected. Notably, association between fathers and mother–infant pairs did not predict the probability of siring the mother's next offspring. Our results support the paternal effort, but not the mating effort hypothesis in this species. Chimpanzees are one of the most salient models for the last common ancestor between Pan and Homo , thus our results suggest that a capacity for paternal care, possibly independent of long-term mother–father bonds, existed early in hominin evolution.

Plasma testosterone levels of male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) during the breeding cycle and in relation to song and paternal care

Behaviour ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 144 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Eens ◽  
Veerle Darras ◽  
Lutgarde Arckens ◽  
Elke de Ridder ◽  
Rianne Pinxten
Keyword(s):  
Paternal Care ◽  
Sturnus Vulgaris ◽  
Plasma Testosterone ◽  
Breeding Cycle ◽  
Mating Effort ◽  
European Starlings ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Mate Attraction ◽  
Incubation Behaviour ◽  
Paternal Effort

In temperate-zone birds, seasonal testosterone (T) profiles often vary among species with different mating systems. The trade-off hypothesis suggests that T levels in male birds represent a trade-off between additional mating effort, stimulated by high T, and paternal effort, inhibited by high T. To study the role of T in mediating the trade-off between paternal and mating effort in the facultatively polygynous European starling ( Sturnus vulgaris ), we monitored seasonal fluctuations in T levels and song activity, which functions mainly in mate attraction, and we investigated natural covariation between plasma T levels and male parental and song behaviour during the parental phase. T concentrations peaked during nest building, remained high during the fertile period, and then decreased gradually during the period of paternal care. This resembles the profile typically found in polygynous species with biparental care. Seasonal variation in song activity paralleled seasonal changes in T. The proportion of time spent incubating was significantly negatively correlated with T levels in individual males. There was a positive, but non-significant, correlation between song activity at an additional nest box and T levels during incubation. We suggest that this negative correlation between T and incubation behaviour may be partly explained by T increases in males responding to the presence of prospecting females with additional nestbox occupation and mate attraction song, rather than that high T levels stimulate mate attraction song. During the feeding period, characterized by a very low availability of unmated females, variation in T levels was low and there was no covariation between T and feeding. T levels during the parental phase reflect, but do not seem to directly regulate, the trade-off between parental and additional mating effort and other factors such as opportunities for additional matings may influence the resolution of this reproductive trade-off.

scholarly journals Why do men marry and why do they stray?

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1618) ◽  
pp. 1643-1649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Winking ◽  
Hillard Kaplan ◽  
Michael Gurven ◽  
Stacey Rucas
Keyword(s):  
Great Apes ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Sexual Relationships ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mating Effort ◽  
Paternal Investment ◽  
Sexual Division ◽  
Social Arrangements ◽  
Using Data

Humans are quite unusual compared to other great apes in that reproduction typically takes place within long-term, iteroparous pairings—social arrangements that have been culturally reified as the institution of marriage. With respect to male behaviour, explanations of marriage fall into two major schools of thought. One holds that marriage facilitates a sexual division of labour and paternal investment, both important to the rearing of offspring that are born helpless and remain dependent for remarkably long periods (provisioning model). And the other suggests that the main benefits which men receive from entering into marriage derive from monopolizing access to women's fertility (mating effort model). In this paper, we explore extramarital sexual relationships and the conditions under which they occur as a means of testing predictions derived from these two models. Using data on men's extramarital sexual relationships among Tsimane forager–horticulturists in lowland Bolivia, we tested whether infidelity was more common when men had less of an opportunity to invest in their children or when they risked losing less fertility. We found that Tsimane men appear to be biasing the timing of their affairs to when they are younger and have fewer children, supporting the provisioning model.

scholarly journals Experimental evidence for yawn contagion in orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evy van Berlo ◽  
Alejandra P. Díaz-Loyo ◽  
Oscar E. Juárez-Mora ◽  
Mariska E. Kret ◽  
Jorg J. M. Massen
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Pongo Pygmaeus ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
Contagious Yawning ◽  
Proximate Mechanism ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Ultimate Causation

AbstractYawning is highly contagious, yet both its proximate mechanism(s) and its ultimate causation remain poorly understood. Scholars have suggested a link between contagious yawning (CY) and sociality due to its appearance in mostly social species. Nevertheless, as findings are inconsistent, CY’s function and evolution remains heavily debated. One way to understand the evolution of CY is by studying it in hominids. Although CY has been found in chimpanzees and bonobos, but is absent in gorillas, data on orangutans are missing despite them being the least social hominid. Orangutans are thus interesting for understanding CY’s phylogeny. Here, we experimentally tested whether orangutans yawn contagiously in response to videos of conspecifics yawning. Furthermore, we investigated whether CY was affected by familiarity with the yawning individual (i.e. a familiar or unfamiliar conspecific and a 3D orangutan avatar). In 700 trials across 8 individuals, we found that orangutans are more likely to yawn in response to yawn videos compared to control videos of conspecifics, but not to yawn videos of the avatar. Interestingly, CY occurred regardless of whether a conspecific was familiar or unfamiliar. We conclude that CY was likely already present in the last common ancestor of humans and great apes, though more converging evidence is needed.

scholarly journals Long-Term Experimental Evolution in Escherichia coli. IV. Targets of Selection and the Specificity of Adaptation

Genetics ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Travisano ◽  
Richard E Lenski
Keyword(s):  
Escherichia Coli ◽  
Experimental Evolution ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Physiological Mechanisms ◽  
Outer Membranes ◽  
Limiting Nutrient ◽  
Novel Environments ◽  
Uptake Mechanisms

Abstract This study investigates the physiological manifestation of adaptive evolutionary change in 12 replicate populations of Escherichia coli that were propagated for 2000 generations in a glucose-limited environment. Representative genotypes from each population were assayed for fitness relative to their common ancestor in the experimental glucose environment and in 11 novel single-nutrient environments. After 2000 generations, the 12 derived genotypes had diverged into at least six distinct phenotypic classes. The nutrients were classified into four groups based upon their uptake physiology. All 12 derived genotypes improved in fitness by similar amounts in the glucose environment, and this pattern of parallel fitness gains was also seen in those novel environments where the limiting nutrient shared uptake mechanisms with glucose. Fitness showed little or no consistent improvement, but much greater genetic variation, in novel environments where the limiting nutrient differed from glucose in its uptake mechanisms. This pattern of fitness variation in the novel nutrient environments suggests that the independently derived genotypes adapted to the glucose environment by similar, but not identical, changes in the physiological mechanisms for moving glucose across both the inner and outer membranes.

Introgression between non-sister species of honeyeaters (Aves: Meliphagidae) several million years after speciation

2019 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 583-591
Author(s):  
Leo Joseph ◽  
Alex Drew ◽  
Ian J Mason ◽  
Jeffrey L Peters
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Sex Chromosomes ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Sister Species ◽  
Species Boundaries ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
The City

Abstract We reassessed whether two parapatric non-sister Australian honeyeater species (Aves: Meliphagidae), varied and mangrove honeyeaters (Gavicalis versicolor and G. fasciogularis, respectively), that diverged from a common ancestor c. 2.5 Mya intergrade in the Townsville area of north-eastern Queensland. Consistent with a previous specimen-based study, by using genomics methods we show one-way gene flow for autosomal but not Z-linked markers from varied into mangrove honeyeaters. Introgression barely extends south of the area of parapatry in and around the city of Townsville. While demonstrating the long-term porosity of species boundaries over several million years, our data also suggest a clear role of sex chromosomes in maintaining reproductive isolation.

scholarly journals Recombinant transfer in the basic genome ofEscherichia coli

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (29) ◽  
pp. 9070-9075 ◽  
Author(s):  
Purushottam D. Dixit ◽  
Tin Yau Pang ◽  
F. William Studier ◽  
Sergei Maslov
Keyword(s):  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Recipient Cell ◽  
Gene Clusters ◽  
Selective Advantage ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
Genome Sequences ◽  
Bacterial Genomes ◽  
Basic Genome ◽  
Single Base Pair ◽  
Generalized Transduction

An approximation to the ∼4-Mbp basic genome shared by 32 strains ofEscherichia colirepresenting six evolutionary groups has been derived and analyzed computationally. A multiple alignment of the 32 complete genome sequences was filtered to remove mobile elements and identify the most reliable ∼90% of the aligned length of each of the resulting 496 basic-genome pairs. Patterns of single base-pair mutations (SNPs) in aligned pairs distinguish clonally inherited regions from regions where either genome has acquired DNA fragments from diverged genomes by homologous recombination since their last common ancestor. Such recombinant transfer is pervasive across the basic genome, mostly between genomes in the same evolutionary group, and generates many unique mosaic patterns. The six least-diverged genome pairs have one or two recombinant transfers of length ∼40–115 kbp (and few if any other transfers), each containing one or more gene clusters known to confer strong selective advantage in some environments. Moderately diverged genome pairs (0.4–1% SNPs) show mosaic patterns of interspersed clonal and recombinant regions of varying lengths throughout the basic genome, whereas more highly diverged pairs within an evolutionary group or pairs between evolutionary groups having >1.3% SNPs have few clonal matches longer than a few kilobase pairs. Many recombinant transfers appear to incorporate fragments of the entering DNA produced by restriction systems of the recipient cell. A simple computational model can closely fit the data. Most recombinant transfers seem likely to be due to generalized transduction by coevolving populations of phages, which could efficiently distribute variability throughout bacterial genomes.

Improved resolution of recalcitrant nodes in the animal phylogeny through the analysis of genome gene content and morphology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ksenia Juravel ◽  
Luis Porras ◽  
Sebastian Hoehna ◽  
Davide Pisani ◽  
Gert Wörheide
Keyword(s):  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Sister Group ◽  
The Other ◽  
Gene Content ◽  
Statistical Hypothesis ◽  
Phylogenetic Position ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
Statistical Hypothesis Testing ◽  
Animal Phylogeny ◽  
Phylogenetic Hypotheses

An accurate phylogeny of animals is needed to clarify their evolution, ecology, and impact on shaping the biosphere. Although multi-gene alignments of up to several hundred thousand amino acids are nowadays routinely used to test hypotheses of animal relationships, some nodes towards the root of the animal phylogeny are proving hard to resolve. While the relationships of the non-bilaterian lineages, primarily sponges (Porifera) and comb jellies (Ctenophora), have received much attention since more than a decade, controversies about the phylogenetic position of the worm-like bilaterian lineage Xenacoelomorpha and the monophyly of the "Superphylum" Deuterostomia have more recently emerged. Here we independently analyse novel genome gene content and morphological datasets to assess patterns of phylogenetic congruence with previous amino-acid derived phylogenetic hypotheses. Using statistical hypothesis testing, we show that both our datasets very strongly support sponges as the sister group of all the other animals, Xenoacoelomorpha as the sister group of the other Bilateria, and largely support monophyletic Deuterostomia. Based on these results, we conclude that the last common animal ancestor may have been a simple, filter-feeding organism without a nervous system and muscles, while the last common ancestor of Bilateria might have been a small, acoelomate-like worm without a through gut.

Inductive patterning of the embryonic brain in Drosophila

Development ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 129 (9) ◽  
pp. 2121-2128
Author(s):  
Damon T. Page
Keyword(s):  
Brain Development ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
Embryonic Brain ◽  
Germ Layers ◽  
Brain Anomaly ◽  
Prechordal Plate ◽  
Foregut Endoderm ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Brain Patterning

In vertebrates (deuterostomes), brain patterning depends on signals from adjacent tissues. For example, holoprosencephaly, the most common brain anomaly in humans, results from defects in signaling between the embryonic prechordal plate (consisting of the dorsal foregut endoderm and mesoderm) and the brain. I have examined whether a similar mechanism of brain development occurs in the protostome Drosophila, and find that the foregut and mesoderm act to pattern the fly embryonic brain. When the foregut and mesoderm of Drosophila are ablated, brain patterning is disrupted. The loss of Hedgehog expressed in the foregut appears to mediate this effect, as it does in vertebrates. One mechanism whereby these defects occur is a disruption of normal apoptosis in the brain. These data argue that the last common ancestor of protostomes and deuterostomes had a prototype of the brains present in modern animals, and also suggest that the foregut and mesoderm contributed to the patterning of this ‘proto-brain’. They also argue that the foreguts of protostomes and deuterostomes, which have traditionally been assigned to different germ layers, are actually homologous.

Natural history of ABC systems: not only transporters

2011 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 19-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elie Dassa
Keyword(s):  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
Abc Proteins ◽  
Hypothetical Scenario ◽  
History Of ◽  
Phylogenetic Perspective ◽  
Living Organisms

In recent years, our understanding of the functioning of ABC (ATP-binding cassette) systems has been boosted by the combination of biochemical and structural approaches. However, the origin and the distribution of ABC proteins among living organisms are difficult to understand in a phylogenetic perspective, because it is hard to discriminate orthology and paralogy, due to the existence of horizontal gene transfer. In this chapter, I present an update of the classification of ABC systems and discuss a hypothetical scenario of their evolution. The hypothetical presence of ABC ATPases in the last common ancestor of modern organisms is discussed, as well as the additional possibility that ABC systems might have been transmitted to eukaryotes, after the two endosymbiosis events that led to the constitution of eukaryotic organelles. I update the functional information of selected ABC systems and introduce new families of ABC proteins that have been included recently into this vast superfamily, thanks to the availability of high-resolution three-dimensional structures.

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