Twinning and heteropaternity in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Abstract

Unlike monozygotic (MZ) twins, dizygotic (DZ) twins develop from separate ova. The resulting twins can have different sires if the fertilizing sperm comes from different males. Routine paternity testing of a pair of same-sexed chimpanzee twins born to a female housed with two males indicated that the twins were sired by two different males. DNA typing of 22 short-tandem repeat (STR) loci demonstrated that these twins were not MZ twins but heteropaternal DZ twins. Reproductive data from 1926-2002 at five domestic chimpanzee colonies, including 52 twins and two triplets in 1,865 maternities, were used to estimate total twinning rates and the MZ and DZ components. The average chimpanzee MZ twinning rate (0.43%) equaled the average human MZ rate (0.48%). However, the chimpanzee DZ twinning rate (2.36%) was over twice the human average, and higher than all but the fertility-enhanced human populations of Nigeria. Similarly high twinning rates among African chimpanzees indicated that these estimates were not artifacts of captivity. Log-linear analyses of maternal and paternal effects on recurrent twinning indicated that females who twinned previously had recurrence risks five times greater than average, while evidence for a paternal twinning effect was weak. Chimpanzee twinning rates appear to be elevated relative to corresponding estimated human rates, making twinning and possibly heteropaternity more important features of chimpanzee reproductive biology than previously recognized.

Positive Selection in Bone Morphogenetic Protein 15 Targets a Natural Mutation Associated with Primary Ovarian Insufficiency in Human

“…Indeed, the chimpanzee dizygotic twinning rate (2.46%) is over twice the human average. This amino acid substitution may be positively selected due to a high selection pressure caused by the P. troglodytes heteropaternity sexual behavior [38]. …”

Twinning frequency of Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata) at Takasakiyama

“…Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the fact that four sets of twins came from only two mothers, which may represent a genetic predisposition to twinning in these females (Ely et al 2006).…”

“…Multiplet births are infrequent and most recorded have been twins, except for two sets of triplets reported from the captive colonies of chimpanzees (Ely et al 2006). There are some reports of twins as being exceptional phenomena, and most accounts describe only a single episode (Presbytis melalophos, Bennett 1988; Presbytis entellus, Winkler et al 1989;Macaca fuscata, Nakamichi 1983;Ogawa 1998;Macaca mulatta, Bercovitch et al 2002;Pan troglodytes, Goodall 1986;Matsumoto-Oda 1995).…”

First occurrence of twins in provisioned free-ranging Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) at Huangshan, China

“…Multiple births occur commonly in prosimians (Pasztor and Horn 1976), but occasional cases of twins have been reported for several simian species that normally have single offspring; for example, Callithrix jacchus (Tardif et al 2001), Saguinus imperator (Windfelder 2000), Cebus apella (Leighty et al 2004), Ateles belzebuth (Link et al 2006), Pan troglodytes (Ely et al 2006), Macaca mulatta (Bercovitch et al 2002), Macaca cyclopis (Hsu et al 2000), and Macaca fuscata (Sugiyama et al 2011). Not surprisingly, infant survivorship has been poor in these cases.…”