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RNA–protein complexes have emerged as central players in numerous key cellular processes with significant relevance in health and disease. To further deepen our knowledge of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), multiple proteome-wide strategies have been developed to identify RBPs in different species leading to a large number of studies contributing experimentally identified as well as predicted RBP candidate catalogs. However, the rapid evolution of the field led to an accumulation of isolated datasets, hampering the access and comparison of their valuable content. Moreover, tools to link RBPs to cellular pathways and functions were lacking. Here, to facilitate the efficient screening of the RBP resources, we provide RBP2GO (https://RBP2GO.DKFZ.de), a comprehensive database of all currently available proteome-wide datasets for RBPs across 13 species from 53 studies including 105 datasets identifying altogether 22 552 RBP candidates. These are combined with the information on RBP interaction partners and on the related biological processes, molecular functions and cellular compartments. RBP2GO offers a user-friendly web interface with an RBP scoring system and powerful advanced search tools allowing forward and reverse searches connecting functions and RBPs to stimulate new research directions., Graphical Abstract Graphical AbstractRBP2GO (https://RBP2GO.DKFZ.de) is a comprehensive database of all currently available proteome-wide datasets for RNA-binding proteins, their functions and interaction partners.Question: is it necessary to have a caption for the graphical abstract? I cannot see them on the website or PDFs of the articles.

Oxytocin has attracted research attention due to its role in promoting social bonding. In bonobos and chimpanzees, the two Pan species closely related to humans, urinary oxytocin is known to correlate with key behaviours related to social bonding, such as social grooming in chimpanzees and female-female sexual behaviour in bonobos. However, no study has demonstrated that the administration of oxytocin promotes real-life social interactions in Pan, leaving it unclear whether oxytocin is merely correlated with social behaviors or does affect them in these species. To test this, we administered nebulized oxytocin or saline placebo to a group of female bonobos and subsequently observed the change in their gross behavior during free interaction. We found an overall effect of more frequent grooming in the oxytocin condition. However, on the individual level this effect remained significant for only one participant in our follow-up models, suggesting future work should explore inter-individual variation. Our results provide some experimental support for the biobehavioural feedback loop hypothesis, which posits that some functions of the oxytocin system support the formation and maintenance of social bonds through a positive feedback loop; however, further tests with a larger number of individuals are required. Our results, at a minimum, demonstrated that oxytocin affects spontaneous, naturalistic social interactions of at least some female bonobos, adding to accumulating evidence that oxytocin modulates complex social behaviors of Pan.

Social grooming is often exchanged between individuals in many primate species. Rates of bidirectional (or simultaneous mutual) grooming vary across primate species, and its function is not yet fully understood. For example, mutual grooming is frequent in chimpanzees but rare in most primate species including wild bonobos. There are, however, no quantitative data available in captive bonobos. Therefore, through the direct comparison between captive bonobos and chimpanzees, this study aimed to (i) compare the frequency of mutual grooming between Pan species, (ii) explore and compare the function of mutual grooming, and (iii) discuss the rarity of this behavior in wild bonobo populations. We tested three hypotheses following the previous literature in wild chimpanzees. The social bonding hypothesis states that mutual grooming facilitates the maintenance of strong dyadic bonds. The immediate investment hypothesis states that it serves to signal willingness to invest in the interaction. The switching hypothesis states that mutual grooming serves no function but only occurs as an overlap to change the direction of unidirectional grooming. Our findings strongly supported the immediate investment hypothesis, but not the others. Grooming bouts that included mutual grooming were longer and more equitable than bouts without, illustrating that captive Pan species use mutual grooming to maximize their short-term benefits and increase the social value of their interaction. Captive bonobos performed mutual grooming in similar proportions and for similar functions as captive and wild chimpanzees do. This contrasts with wild bonobos who engage in this behavior only rarely. We suggest that the differences in patterns of mutual grooming between captive and wild bonobos might be explained by different degrees of kinship or by a potential intraspecies variation.

The plant root is a crucial organ for adaptation to dynamic environments, but to date the degree of functional conservation of root developmental programs has remained unknown. A recent report by Kajala et al. sheds light on the cross-species conservation and repurposing of root gene functions in a manner pertinent to attempts to ensure future yield stability.

付記する学位プログラム名: 霊長類学・ワイルドライフサイエンス・リーディング大学院

Proximate factors of primate food sharing, in contrast to its evolutionary explanations, have received little attention. Active food sharing is considered prosocial, since possessors may benefit others by spontaneously passing food or by reacting to ‘signals of need’. However, in contrast to passive sharing, active food sharing is rare in most nonhuman primates. Surprisingly, previous research showed that captive Sumatran orang-utans actively share food more frequently than chimpanzees and bonobos, and hence, appear more prosocial. Yet these comparisons with the two Pan species were relying on previously published studies, which differed with regard to methods and food types used. Here we used the identical procedure and food type to compare the food-sharing behaviour of 10 captive Sumatran orang-utans and 18 chimpanzees, in situations where individuals could monopolize a sharable food source. We focused on communicative behaviours used to initiate food transfers, and assessed whether and how much food was transferred in response to these initiation attempts. In both species, most transfers were initiated by taking the food, resulting in passive sharing, while active sharing by offering food or after requesting it occurred only rarely. However, orang-utans differed from chimpanzees in several aspects. Because the food was mostly monopolized by the adult male, orang-utans attempted to initiate food transfers more frequently, resisted more to taking attempts, and were less likely to transfer whole food items. In both species, requests were less likely to result in food transfers, indicating that in situations involving access to food, they do not necessarily respond to ‘signals of need’. We argue that in addition to instances of active sharing, other factors such as the degree of food monopolization, response rates to ‘signals of need’, and the quality and quantity of transferred food need to be considered to gain a more detailed picture of prosociality across species.

International audience; Allogrooming in primates serves not only a hygienic function, but also plays a crucial role in maintaining strong affiliative bonds between group members, which in turn, underpin the emergence of cooperative behavior. In contrast, although allopreening occurs in many avian species, we know little about its social functions. Our study addresses this issue by investigating allopreening in a broad comparative data set including six corvid and nine parrot species. We assessed whether rates of allopreening initiations, proportion of time spent allopreening, and the number of grooming partners in captive group-housed birds were comparable to patterns observed in captive chimpanzees and bonobos. While parrots and corvids were found to have similar rates of social grooming to bonobos and chimpanzees, Pan species dedicated significantly more time to social grooming. Animals in larger groups had more grooming partners, but when controlling for the number of potential partners, birds tended to have fewer grooming interaction partners than Pan species. We then investigated whether allopreening in parrots and corvids was predicted by behavioral markers of affiliative social bonds (close physical proximity, active feeding, and low levels of agonistic behavior). Results revealed that providing allopreening to a partner was significantly predicted by often being in close proximity, but not engagement in active feeding or agonistic behavior. We examined the region allopreened in a subset of species and found that preening a partner's head was predicted by both close physical proximity and active feeding, while body allopreening was only predicted by close physical proximity. Head preening may confer more hygienic benefits to recipients, and thus, may be more selectively provided to valued partners. Results support the hypothesis that allopreening in corvids and parrots helps maintain social bonds with an individual's most important social partners, showing some similarities to allogrooming in primates.

Within genus Crinum L. there has been a lot of confusion, especially in the Crinum rautanenianum complex comprising Crinum carolo-schmidtii, C. euchrophyllum, C. paludosum, C. rautanenianum, and also a specimen referred to as sp. A in Flora of Tropical East Africa. Maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference analyses were conducted on two datasets: nuclear DNA region (ITS) and five plastid regions (trnL-F spacer, trnL intron, rps16 intron, psbA-trnH spacer, and rps12-rpl20 spacer). Additionally, morphological characters based on herbarium specimens, pictures from the field, type specimens, and protologues were studied to establish diagnostic characters within the complex. Results from phylogeny and morphological characters provide evidence for the reinstatement of C. euchrophyllum, recognition of C. rautanenianum, C. carolo-schmidtii, C. paludosum, and the description of a new taxon: C. luangwense.

Microsatellites are widely distributed throughout nearly all genomes which have been extensively exploited as powerful genetic markers for diverse applications due to their high polymorphisms. Their length variations are involved in gene regulation and implicated in numerous genetic diseases even in cancers. Although much effort has been devoted in microsatellite database construction, the existing microsatellite databases still had some drawbacks, such as limited number of species, unfriendly export format, missing marker development, lack of compound microsatellites and absence of gene annotation, which seriously restricted researchers to perform downstream analysis. In order to overcome the above limitations, we developed PSMD (Pan-Species Microsatellite Database, http://big.cdu.edu.cn/psmd/) as a web-based database to facilitate researchers to easily identify microsatellites, exploit reliable molecular markers and compare microsatellite distribution pattern on genome-wide scale. In current release, PSMD comprises 678,106,741 perfect microsatellites and 43,848,943 compound microsatellites from 18,408 organisms, which covered almost all species with available genomic data. In addition to interactive browse interface, PSMD also offers a flexible filter function for users to quickly gain desired microsatellites from large data sets. PSMD allows users to export GFF3 formatted file and CSV formatted statistical file for downstream analysis. We also implemented an online tool for analysing occurrence of microsatellites with user-defined parameters. Furthermore, Primer3 was embedded to help users to design high-quality primers with customizable settings. To our knowledge, PSMD is the most extensive resource which is likely to be adopted by scientists engaged in biological, medical, environmental and agricultural research.

Trabecular bone remodels during life in response to loading and thus should, at least in part, reflect potential variation in the magnitude, frequency and direction of joint loading across different hominid species. Here we analyse the trabecular structure across all non-pollical metacarpal distal heads (Mc2-5) in extant great apes, expanding on previous volume of interest and whole-epiphysis analyses that have largely focused on only the first or third metacarpal. Specifically, we employ both a univariate statistical mapping and a multivariate approach to test for both inter-ray and interspecific differences in relative trabecular bone volume fraction (RBV/TV) and degree of anisotropy (DA) in Mc2-5 subchondral trabecular bone. Results demonstrate that whereas DA values only separate Pongo from African apes (Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus, Gorilla gorilla), RBV/TV distribution varies with the predicted loading of the metacarpophalangeal (McP) joints during locomotor behaviours in each species. Gorilla exhibits a relatively dorsal distribution of RBV/TV consistent with habitual hyper-extension of the McP joints during knuckle-walking, whereas Pongo has a palmar distribution consistent with flexed McP joints used to grasp arboreal substrates. Both Pan species possess a disto-dorsal distribution of RBV/TV, compatible with multiple hand postures associated with a more varied locomotor regime. Further inter-ray comparisons reveal RBV/TV patterns consistent with varied knuckle-walking postures in Pan species in contrast to higher RBV/TV values toward the midline of the hand in Mc2 and Mc5 of Gorilla, consistent with habitual palm-back knuckle-walking. These patterns of trabecular bone distribution and structure reflect different behavioural signals that could be useful for determining the behaviours of fossil hominins.

Apes, members of the superfamily Hominoidea, possess a distinctive suite of anatomical and behavioral characters which appear to have evolved relatively late and relatively independently. The timing of paleontological events, extant cercopithecine and hominoid ecomorphology and other evidence suggests that many distinctive ape features evolved to facilitate harvesting ripe fruits among compliant terminal branches in tree edges. Precarious, unpredictably oriented, compliant supports in the canopy periphery require apes to maneuver using suspensory and non-sterotypical postures (i.e. postures with eccentric limb orientations or extreme joint excursions). Diet differences among extant species, extant species numbers and evidence of cercopithecoid diversification and expansion, in concert with a reciprocal decrease in hominoid species, suggest intense competition between monkeys and apes over the last 20 Ma. It may be that larger body masses allow great apes to succeed in contest competitions for highly desired food items, while the ability of monkeys to digest antifeedant-rich unripe fruits allows them to win scramble competitions. Evolutionary trends in morphology and inferred ecology suggest that as monkeys evolved to harvest fruit ever earlier in the fruiting cycle they broadened their niche to encompass first more fibrous, tannin- and toxin-rich unripe fruits and later, for some lineages, mature leaves. Early depletion of unripe fruit in the central core of the tree canopy by monkeys leaves a hollow sphere of ripening fruits, displacing antifeedant-intolerant, later-arriving apes to small-diameter, compliant terminal branches. Hylobatids, orangutans, Pan species, gorillas and the New World atelines may have each evolved suspensory behavior independently in response to local competition from an expanding population of monkeys. Genetic evidence of rapid evolution among chimpanzees suggests that adaptations to suspensory behavior, vertical climbing, knuckle-walking, consumption of terrestrial piths and intercommunity violence had not yet evolved or were still being refined when panins (chimpanzees and bonobos) and hominins diverged.

This research was supported by NSF SLC Grant SBE-0541957 awarded to the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC), the Max Planck Society, and Swarthmore Lang Sabbatical Fellowship. Relational reasoning is a hallmark of sophisticated cognition in humans [1, 2]. Does it exist in other primates? Despite some affirmative answers [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11], there appears to be a wide gap in relational ability between humans and other primates—even other apes [1, 2]. Here, we test one possible explanation for this gap, motivated by developmental research showing that young humans often fail at relational reasoning tasks because they focus on objects instead of relations [12, 13, 14]. When asked, “duck:duckling is like tiger:?,” preschool children choose another duckling (object match) rather than a cub. If other apes share this focus on concrete objects, it could undermine their relational reasoning in similar ways. To test this, we compared great apes and 3-year-old humans’ relational reasoning on the same spatial mapping task, with and without competing object matches. Without competing object matches, both children and Pan species (chimpanzees and bonobos) spontaneously used relational similarity, albeit children more so. But when object matches were present, only children responded strongly to them. We conclude that the relational gap is not due to great apes’ preference for concrete objects. In fact, young humans show greater object focus than nonhuman apes. Postprint

As our closest living relatives, comparisons of the social lives and behavioural ecologies of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) provide relevant insights into the evolutionary constraints of peaceful coexistence in Hominid societies. In this review, we compare and contrast findings from the two Pan species in order to examine some of the obstacles and catalysts for peaceful behaviour in our ape relatives. Through comparing the social structures, behavioural mechanisms and ecological drivers for peaceful behaviours in Pan, we develop hypotheses regarding the evolutionary constraints of peaceful co-existence in hominid societies.

Adrenarche is characterized by the onset of adrenal secretions of increasing amounts of dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S). While the function of adrenarche remains a matter of speculation, evidence suggests that the morphological and physiological changes related to it are restricted to humans and closely related primates. Within the primate order, adrenarche has been described only in humans and chimpanzees, but bonobos, the sister species of chimpanzees, have not yet been studied regarding the early ontogenetic changes such as adrenarche. While bonobos and chimpanzees share many morphological and behavioral characteristics, they differ in a number of behavioral traits, and there is a growing interest in terms of the physiological differences that can be linked to species-specific patterns of social behavior. In this study, we measured urinary DHEA-S levels to determine whether bonobos experience physiological changes that are indicative of adrenarche. We measured DHEA-S in urine using ELISA and analyzed its levels in the samples from 53 bonobos aged 1–18 years. Our results show that bonobos experience an increase in DHEA-S levels after 5 years of age, which is comparable with the patterns observed in humans and chimpanzees. This indicates that bonobos do undergo adrenarche and that the timing of onset is similar to that of the two Pan species. The extraction procedures described in this report demonstrate the use of urine for monitoring ontogenetic changes in DHEA-S excretion. If applicable to other species, the technique would facilitate more research on the evolutionary origin of adrenarche and other developmental processes.

The spatial organization of a set of individuals may reflect the underlying relationships between them. This study investigated whether inter-individual distance, or the proximity between a pair of individuals, predicts the patterns of grooming interactions. The subjects were twelve chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes; M = 2, F = 10; age: mean = 34.8, range = 25-45) and six bonobos (Pan paniscus; M = 2, F = 4; age: mean = 27.3, range = 13-44) studied since September 2015 and living at Kumamoto Sanctuary (Japan). Proximity, time in contact, and time at less than one meter of all group members were recorded using focal animal sampling. The full temporal organization of grooming patterns was analyzed after ad libitum video records of the interactions. A pair of individuals that spends more time in close proximity was predicted to (i) show a shorter latency to approach before the onset of grooming, (ii) groom sensitive body parts (e.g. face and genitals) more often, and (iii) take turns in grooming more frequently than two individuals that stay far from each other. The results may suggest species-specific or relationship-dependent social tolerance, reflected in both inter-individual distance and patterns of grooming.

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (P. paniscus) are our closest living relatives, with the human lineage diverging from the Pan lineage only around five to seven Mya, but possibly as early as eight Mya.1-2 Chimpanzees and bonobos even share genetic similarities with humans that they do not share with each other.2 Given their close genetic relationship to humans, both Pan species represent crucial living models for reconstructing our last common ancestor (LCA) and identifying uniquely human features. Comparing the similarities and differences of the two Pan is thus essential for constructing balanced models of human evolution.3.

Compared to data from chimpanzees, observations on prey capture and meat eating by bonobos (Pan paniscus) are still rare, fragmentary and anecdotal. Here we present new and unpublished information from wild bonobos at Lui Kotale, Salonga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. Our observations confirm that solitary and terrestrial ungulates are the major prey. However, bonobos at Lui Kotale also consumed other mammalian prey, including other primates. Evidence from direct observations is complemented with information obtained by macroscopic analyses of fresh faeces. Results suggest that bonobos consume meat with frequencies similar to some chimpanzee populations. The data emphasize differences between the two Pan species in terms of prey species selection and prey capture.

A literature-based survey was conducted on the use of live apes in research between 2000 and 2003. The 599 studies identified and considered were grouped according to area of research, taxonomy and geographic location of the work. The results suggested that behaviour/cognition, conservation and various applications related to virology (most notably, hepatitis and HIV) were the most frequent areas of research. Of the studies, 73% were classified as non-invasive, whereas 27% were classified as invasive. Among the invasive studies, 39% were scored as of mild severity, and 61% were scored as of moderate/substantial severity. Pan species were involved in 65% of the studies, Gorilla species in 15%, Pongo species in 12%, and Hylobates species in 8%. Most of the invasive research was conducted in the USA (60%). The majority of the non-invasive research was conducted in the USA (31%), Japan (13%), or in the animals’ natural habitats in Africa (35%) and Asia (8%).

Humans, but not chimpanzees, punish unfair offers in ultimatum games, suggesting that fairness concerns evolved sometime after the split between the lineages that gave rise to Homo and Pan . However, nothing is known about fairness concerns in the other Pan species, bonobos. Furthermore, apes do not typically offer food to others, but they do react against theft. We presented a novel game, the ultimatum theft game, to both of our closest living relatives. Bonobos and chimpanzee ‘proposers’ consistently stole food from the responders' portions, but the responders did not reject any non-zero offer. These results support the interpretation that the human sense of fairness is a derived trait.

Chimpanzees and bonobos are the closest living relatives of humans and diverged relatively recently in their phylogenetic history. However, a number of reports have suggested behavioral discrepancies between the two Pan species, such as more cooperative and tolerant social interaction and poorer tool-using repertoires in bonobos. Concerning hunting behavior and meat consumption, recent studies from the field have confirmed both behaviors not only in chimpanzees but also in bonobos. The present study reports an encounter by wild bonobos at Wamba with a duiker trapped in a snare. Bonobos interacted with the live duiker for about 10 min but did not eventually kill the animal. They showed fear responses when the duiker moved and exhibited behaviors related to anxiety and stress such as branch-drag displays and self-scratching. Although bonobos manipulated nearby saplings and parts of the snare, they did not use detached objects to make indirect contact with the duiker. Juveniles and adults of both sexes engaged in active interactions with the trapped duiker. Overall, bonobos’ behavioral responses indicated species-specific cognitive characteristics largely different from those of chimpanzees.

Summary Chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) and bonobos ( P. paniscus ) hunt and consume the meat of various mammals. While chimpanzees frequently hunt in groups for arboreal, group-living monkey species [1,2], bonobos are thought to focus on medium-sized terrestrial prey, such as forest antelopes, squirrels and other rodents, which are caught opportunistically by single individuals [3]. The absence of monkey hunting by bonobos is often used to illustrate the divergent evolution of the two Pan species [4]. Here, we present the first information on hunting of diurnal, arboreal and group living primates by wild bonobos.

A new model suitable for the quantitation of Li vivo thrombolytic efficacy was developed which has significant advantages over currently available models. This model allows animals to be used repeatedly and produces data that are less variable.This is a species-independent model utilizing an arterio-venous shunt (AVS). This model was used in rabbits (3 kg) and beagle dogs (13 kg). Each animal was used repeatedly during a 7 day experimental period without evidence of antibody formation. Clot lysis data are less variable than the rabbit jugular vein clot lysis model (RJV). The average coefficient of variation at all doses ([SD/Mean]×l00) with the AVS model was 13±9 and 21±6 for dogs and rabbits, respectively, compared to 25±11 for the RJV model. The rate of data accunulation with the AVS is 3-fold greater than the RJV.In the dog, catheters (25 cm long, 1.6 mm ID) were placed in the jugular vein and the carotid artery, tunneled under the skin to the back of the neck, exteriorized and plugged with a heparin lock. Thrombi were made from a donor dog by placing 0.7 ml of whole blood in a 1 cc plastic syringe barrel containing a cotton thread. The blood was clotted for 2 hr at 37.5 deg C, in vitro. The thrombus was rinsed and the syringe barrel was connected into the circulation by silicone tubing for a 90 min test period. Clot lysis was determined by weight. The flow rate across the thrombus was regulated to 60 ml/min by placing a teflon capillary tube (30 cm, o.7 mm OD) on the venous side. The procedure for the rabbit study differed as follows: Rabbit blood made larger clots therefore the blood was diluted with saline (4 to 1). Clots were incubated 90 min in vitro. The flow rate was 40 ml/min. Clot lysis was measured by the loss of 125-1 fibrinogen.The dose of reccminant t-PA (ActivaseR, Actilyse™) that achieved 40% lysis (ED40) was determined to be 180 ugAg in the dog and 660 ugAg in the rabbit AVS model. Using the RJV model the ED40 was 340 ug/kg.

Background It is increasingly recognized that the bacteria that live in and on the human body (the microbiome) can play an important role in health and disease. The composition of the microbiome is potentially influenced by both internal factors (such as phylogeny and host physiology) and external factors (such as diet and local environment), and interspecific comparisons can aid in understanding the importance of these factors. Results To gain insights into the relative importance of these factors on saliva microbiome diversity, we here analyze the saliva microbiomes of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) from two sanctuaries in Africa, and from human workers at each sanctuary. The saliva microbiomes of the two Pan species are more similar to one another, and the saliva microbiomes of the two human groups are more similar to one another, than are the saliva microbiomes of human workers and apes from the same sanctuary. We also looked for the existence of a core microbiome and find no evidence for a taxon-based core saliva microbiome for Homo or Pan. In addition, we studied the saliva microbiome from apes from the Leipzig Zoo, and found an extraordinary diversity in the zoo ape saliva microbiomes that is not found in the saliva microbiomes of the sanctuary animals. Conclusions The greater similarity of the saliva microbiomes of the two Pan species to one another, and of the two human groups to one another, are in accordance with both the phylogenetic relationships of the hosts as well as with host physiology. Moreover, the results from the zoo animals suggest that novel environments can have a large impact on the microbiome, and that microbiome analyses based on captive animals should be viewed with caution as they may not reflect the microbiome of animals in the wild.