Diet and feeding behavior data are crucial to a deep understanding of the behavioral response and adaptation of primates to a high-altitude environment. From August 2019 to June 2021, we collected data on the feeding behavior of a high-altitude rhesus macaque Macaca mulatta group from Yajiang County, Western Sichuan Plateau, which has an altitude of over 3,500 m. The results showed that feeding (33.0 ± 1.8%) and moving (28.3 ± 2.6%) were the dominant behavior of rhesus macaques. Macaques ate 193 food items, comprising 11 food categories from 90 species. Our study found that plant roots (30.9±30.1%) and young leaves (28.0±33.1%) were the main foods eaten by macaques. The preferred foods of rhesus macaques were young leaves, fruits and seeds, and the consumption of these items was positively correlated with its food availability. When the availability of preferred foods was low, macaques took plant roots, barks and fallen leaves as fallback foods. In particular, roots were a dominant food item in winter, and this way of feeding became a key survival strategy. Our results suggest that, facing the relative scarcity and strong seasonal fluctuations of food resources in high-altitude habitat, macaques adopt active foraging strategies, relying on a variety of food species and adjusting flexibly their food choices based on food availability, which may help to maximize the energy efficiency of high-altitude macaques.
In this study, we reported the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a red panda (Ailurus fulgens). The mitogenome (GenBank accession number MK886830) length is 16,517 bp and exhibits the typical structure of mammalian mitochondrial genomes contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, two ribosomal RNAs, and one control region. The tRNA Ser (AGY) gene failed to form the typical cloverleaf secondary structure as it lacked the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm. phylogenetically, our sequence cluster together with genus Ailurus, which showed a closer genetic relationship. The mitogenome provides new data to further elucidation and understand the phylogeny of red pandas.
Background Rhesus macaque ( Macaca mulatta ) is widely distributed in China, across different altitudes. The mitochondrial ATP6 gene,an ATPase subunit coding gene with fast evolution rate in the mitochondrial genome, plays an important role in the energy metabolism of animals, which may be a good molecular marker for studying the adaptive evolution of animals. Herein, we detected ATP6 genes of 334 rhesus macaques of 19 populations from multiple regions in China with an elevation span of 5-4000m, and mainly carried out the population genetic and evolutionary analysis in these macaques. Our aim is to explore the molecular mechanism of rhesus macaques in adapting to different environments, especially in high altitude extreme environments. Results A total of 50 haplotypes were identified, and significant differences were found in haplotype sequences of rhesus macaque ATP6 gene at different elevations, especially in the high altitude haplotypes with multiple specific variation sites, leading to some region-specific haplotypes. Population genetic analysis showed that rhesus macaque had high genetic diversity ( Pi =0.02332 ± 0.00226, Hd =0.802 ± 0.022 and K =14.982), and there was obvious genetic differentiation among different geographical populations. Conclusions The results showed that the ATP6 gene had undergone adaptive evolution in the process of rhesus macaque adapting to different elevations, especially the high altitude environments. We also found that geographical isolation was an important factor in the genetic differentiation of rhesus macaque. Phylogenetic analysis showed that there were two subspecies of rhesus macaque in western Sichuan, namely, M. m. lasiotus and M. m. vestita , the former distributed in the western Sichuan region of the Yalong River Basin and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, while the latter distributed in the Dadu River Basin and northwest Sichuan. We speculated that the Daxueshan Mountains in western Sichuan was a critical geographical barrier for the differentiation of the two subspecies populations.
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