The Development and Status of the Baboon Genetic Linkage Map

Rx Report

“…There are convincing examples of simple genetic changes that have stark phenotypic effects in primates and other animals. In dogs, patterns of hair growth (wired, short, or long hair) are largely governed by polymorphisms at only three loci;27 in threespine sticklebacks, variations in armor plating and pelvic spines are largely due to variations at two key genes ( Eda and Pitx1 , respectively)28; and in baboons, variations in bone density and cholesterol levels map to a few key genomic regions with large effect 29…”

“…The construction of linkage maps for wild populations is still in its infancy,109 but linkage maps have been developed for captive primate populations 92, 100–111. These studies are already yielding information on loci governing variation in, for example, bone density and cholesterol levels in baboons 29…”

“…However, GWAS remain a potential option for large, long‐term captive and free‐ranging primate colonies, such as the macaques of Cayo Santiago40 and the baboons of the Texas Biomedical Research Institute 41. Indeed, such GWAS are already being used for these primate colonies in an effort to identify loci associated with health and disease progression 29, 40–42. These efforts are aided by the extensive catalogs of polymorphic sites that are already available for some primate populations 34…”

Age- and sex-related differences in baboon (Papio anubis) gray matter covariation

“…Second, the baboon genome is very similar to humans with over 90% homology of coding segments and 85% homology of non-coding regions. For this reason, the baboon has served as a model to study the genetics and epigenetics of several human diseases (Cox et al, 2013;Cox et al, 2006;Robinson et al, 2019;Rogers et al, 2009;Rogers et al, 2000). In addition, both human and baboon lifespan is moderately heritable (0.23-0.26 and 0.23, respectively) and differences in frailty likely causes variation in individual mortality risk within both species (Bronikowski et al, 2002;Martin et al, 2002).…”