Am J Primatol
January 2025
This study aimed to establish a baseline hematological profile and examine the influence of age, sex, and season on hematological parameters in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) living in a humid tropical climate. Hematological parameters are a useful tool for assessing health status and diagnosing diseases in animals. We analyzed 473 blood samples collected from 84 chimpanzees (43 females and 41 males) during annual health checks, conducted under anesthesia for a routine physical examination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeciphering the mechanism of secondary cell wall/SCW formation in plants is key to understanding their development and the molecular basis of biomass recalcitrance. Although transcriptional regulation is essential for SCW formation, little is known about the implication of post-transcriptional mechanisms in this process. Here we report that two RNA-binding proteins homologous to the animal translational regulator Musashi, MSIL2 and MSIL4, function redundantly to control SCW formation in .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Negl Trop Dis
July 2023
Bats are important natural reservoir hosts of a diverse range of viruses that can be transmitted to humans and have been suggested to play an important role in the Zika virus (ZIKV) transmission cycle. However, the exact role of these animals as reservoirs for flaviviruses is still controversial. To further expand our understanding of the role of bats in the ZIKV transmission cycle in Latin America, we carried out an experimental infection in wild-caught Artibeus lituratus bats and sampled several free-living neotropical bats across three countries of the region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral bat species act as asymptomatic reservoirs for many viruses that are highly pathogenic in other mammals. Here, we have characterized the functional diversification of the protein kinase R (PKR), a major antiviral innate defense system. Our data indicate that PKR has evolved under positive selection and has undergone repeated genomic duplications in bats in contrast to all studied mammals that have a single copy of the gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWelfare and management decisions for unowned free-ranging cats in urban environments should no longer be based on knowledge about behavioural ecology of solitary cats living and breeding in more natural 'wild' environments. We provide evidence that urban free-ranging domestic cats in the Anthropocene have responded to rapidly changing environments, such as abundance of food and higher population densities of conspecifics by adapting their behaviour (behavioural plasticity-the ability of a genotype (individual) to express different behaviours according to its environment) and social organisation to living in complex social groups, especially those living in colonies. Urban free-ranging cats are now more social, as demonstrated by different breeding patterns, lower infanticide, more frequent affiliative interactions in general, and different spatial groupings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn Europe, Puumala virus (PUUV) transmitted by the bank vole () is the causative agent of nephropathia epidemica (NE), a mild form of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. In France, very little is known about the spatial and temporal variability of the virus circulating within bank vole populations. The present study involved monitoring of bank vole population dynamics and PUUV microdiversity over a ten-year period (2000-2009) in two forests of the Ardennes region: Elan and Croix-Scaille.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDomestication has greatly changed the social and reproductive behavior of dogs relative to that of wild members of the genus which typically exhibit social monogamy and extended parental care. Unlike a typical gray wolf pack that consists of a single breeding pair and their offspring from multiple seasons, a group of free-ranging dogs (FRDs) can include multiple breeding individuals of both sexes. To understand the consequences of this shift in reproductive behavior, we reconstructed the genetic pedigree of an FRD population and assessed the kinship patterns in social groups, based on genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism genotypes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCorrect 3'end processing of mRNAs is one of the regulatory cornerstones of gene expression. In a parasite that must adapt to the regulatory requirements of its multi-host life style, there is a need to adopt additional means to partition the distinct transcriptional signatures of the closely and tandemly arranged stage-specific genes. In this study, we report our findings in of an m6A-dependent 3'end polyadenylation serving as a transcriptional barrier at these .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatitis delta virus (HDV) is a defective human virus that lacks the ability to produce its own envelope proteins and is thus dependent on the presence of a helper virus, which provides its surface proteins to produce infectious particles. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) was so far thought to be the only helper virus described to be associated with HDV. However, recent studies showed that divergent HDV-like viruses could be detected in fishes, birds, amphibians, and invertebrates, without evidence of any HBV-like agent supporting infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOesophagostomosis is a zoonotic disease caused by nematodes of the genus in the intestinal walls of many species, including ruminants, pigs, humans, and nonhuman primates. Although great apes appear to tolerate the parasite in the wild, they can develop a clinical form that can lead to death in captivity and the natural environment. At the Primatology Centre of the International Centre for Medical Research in Franceville (CIRMF) in Gabon, we recorded 4 deaths of chimpanzees () caused by spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough essential for control strategies, knowledge about transmission cycles is limited for Venezuelan equine encephalitis complex alphaviruses (VEEVs). After testing 1,398 bats from French Guiana for alphaviruses, we identified and isolated a new strain of the encephalitogenic VEEV species Tonate virus (TONV). Bats may contribute to TONV spread in Latin America.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the most recent decade, environmental DNA metabarcoding approaches have been both developed and improved to minimize the biological and technical biases in these protocols. However, challenges remain, notably those relating to primer design. In the current study, we comprehensively assessed the performance of ten COI and two 16S primer pairs for eDNA metabarcoding, including novel and previously published primers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the origin of sex differences in lifespan and aging patterns remains a salient challenge in both biogerontology and evolutionary biology. Different factors have been studied but the potential influence of pathogens has never been investigated. Sex differences, especially in hormones and resource allocation, generate a differential response to pathogens and thereby shape sex differences in lifespan or aging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHorizontal gene transfer (HGT) promotes the spread of genes within bacterial communities. Among the HGT mechanisms, natural transformation stands out as being encoded by the bacterial core genome. Natural transformation is often viewed as a way to acquire new genes and to generate genetic mixing within bacterial populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEuropean wildcat () populations are fragmented throughout most of the whole range of the subspecies and may be threatened by hybridization with the domestic cat . The underlying ecological processes promoting hybridization remain largely unknown. In France, wildcats are mainly present in the northeast and signs of their presence in the Pyrenees have been recently provided.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe greater horseshoe bat () is among the most widespread bat species in Europe but it has experienced severe declines, especially in Northern Europe. This species is listed Near Threatened in the European , and it is considered to be highly sensitive to human activities and particularly to habitat fragmentation. Therefore, understanding the population boundaries and demographic history of populations of this species is of primary importance to assess relevant conservation strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlobal, segmental, and gene duplication-related processes are driving genome size and complexity in plants. Despite their evolutionary potentials, those processes can also have adverse effects on genome regulation, thus implying the existence of specialized corrective mechanisms. Here, we report that an N6-methyladenosine (mA)-assisted polyadenylation (m-ASP) pathway ensures transcriptome integrity in Efficient m-ASP pathway activity requires the mA methyltransferase-associated factor FIP37 and CPSF30L, an mA reader corresponding to an YT512-B Homology Domain-containing protein (YTHDC)-type domain containing isoform of the 30-kD subunit of cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRepeated sequence expression and transposable element mobilization are tightly controlled by multilayer processes, which include DNA 5'-cytosine methylation. The RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway, which uses siRNAs to guide sequence-specific directed DNA methylation, emerged specifically in plants. RdDM ensures DNA methylation maintenance on asymmetric CHH sites and specifically initiates de novo methylation in all cytosine sequence contexts through the action of DRM DNA methyltransferases, of which DRM2 is the most prominent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Our picture of behavioral management of risk by prey remains fragmentary. This partly stems from a lack of studies jointly analyzing different behavioral responses developed by prey, such as habitat use and fine-scale behavior, although they are expected to complement each other. We took advantage of a simple system on the Kerguelen archipelago, made of a prey species, European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, a predator, feral cat Felis catus, and a mosaic of closed and open foraging patches, allowing reliable assessment of spatio-temporal change in predation risk.
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