The effects of social dominance on male mating behavior and paternity in a troop of rhesus monkeys (macaca mulatta) were examined. A wild-caught troop of monkeys, captured in India in 1972, has been monitored in captivity for eight years. Some animals have been culled from this troop, but no new animals have been added except through births. The social structure of the troop has remained fairly stable over the eight years, although the number of adult males at any given time has ranged from four to ten. We blood typed 77 offspring born between 1973 and 1980 that survived to two months of age and determined paternity for 48 of them. During the eight-year period, the dominant male sired only 13% to 32% of the offspring, even though he participated in 67% of the observed copulations. In contrast, the second ranking male sired 30% to 48% of the offspring, but participated in only 14% of the observed matings. The frequency and duration of copulation in any one year appeared to reflect a male's rank in the dominance hierarchy. However, in all but one year of our study, the largest number of offspring were sired, not by the dominant male, but by young males who were second or third in rank. Nevertheless, the dominant male may have a selective advantage because he sires a large number of offspring early in life, and continues to produce offspring over many years. This study demonstrates that observed copulations are imprecise indicators of paternity, and that paternity in any one breeding season is a poor indicator of the genetic structure of a population.
Of 711 physicians likely to perform artificial insemination by donor surveyed to determine their current practices, 471 responded, of whom 379 reported that they performed this procedure. They accounted for approximately 3576 births by this means in 1977. In addition to treating infertility, 26 per cent of these physicians used the procedure to prevent transmission of a genetic disease, and 10 per cent used if for single women. Donors of semen were primarily from universities, were only superficially screened for genetic diseases, and were then matched phenotypically to the recipient's husband. Most recipients were inseminated twice per cycle. Only 17 per cent of physicians used the same donor for a given recipient, and 32 per cent used multiple donors within a single cycle. Only 37 per cent kept records on children, and only 30 per cent on donors. The identity of donors usually was carefully guarded to ensure privacy and to avoid legal complications.
Using the results of all paired one-way mixed lymphocyte culture tests on families of half-sibs, we have established that the lymphocyte-defined system in cattle contains a minimum of two loci. The methodology presented is applicable to studies of the lymphocyte-defined systems of other species.
Detection of linkage between genetic loci in cattle has been hampered by the lack of large full -sib families. A unique source of full-sib families is now available from embryo transplantation. Lymphocytes from six full-sib families, ranging in size from three to seven siblings, were tested for serologically defined BoLA antigens (BoLA-A). In addition, mixed lymphocyte reactivity (MLR) was tested between all paired combinations of cells within each family to distinguish BoLA-D specificities. Serologically identical siblings within each family were reciprocally nonreactive in MLR, and vice versa; thus, no recombinants were detected between the BoLA-A and the BoLA-D loci. Classical genetic linkage analysis revealed that these loci are significantly closer than 11.9 centimorgans.
The relative risk of B8/B15 heterozygotes for juvenile‐onset diabetes is higher than the risk for people having B8 or B15 alone. This has been cited as evidence for genetic heterogeneity in juvenile diabetes. However, the observed relative risks are compatible with a single susceptibility allele. If disease susceptibility is recessive, for example, then an individual with two disease associated antigens is more likely to be susceptible than an individual with only one associated antigen. The relative risk for an HLA heterozygote should be intermediate between that of the respective homozygotes, so that an interaction effect of two alleles can only be supported if the heterozygote risk is significantly greater than both homozygote risks. The estimated relative risks for B8 and B15 homozygotes, based on data from four different populations, is approximately equal to the risk for B8/B15 heterozygotes. Moreover, disease manifestations which are differentially associated with B8 and B15. such as antibody production to exogenous insulin, may be due to linkage disequilibrium between HLA and other loci which are not directly related to susceptibility of juvenile diabetes. Therefore, while the susceptibility to juvenile diabetes may have several genetic forms, there is no support for distinct B8‐associated and B15‐associated forms of susceptibility.
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