Although human biomedical and physiological information is readily available, such information for great apes is limited. We analyzed clinical chemical biomarkers in serum samples from 277 wild- and captive-born great apes and from 312 healthy human volunteers as well as from 20 rhesus macaques. For each individual, we determined a maximum of 33 markers of heart, liver, kidney, thyroid and pancreas function, hemoglobin and lipid metabolism and one marker of inflammation. We identified biomarkers that show differences between humans and the great apes in their average level or activity. Using the rhesus macaques as an outgroup, we identified human-specific differences in the levels of bilirubin, cholinesterase and lactate dehydrogenase, and bonobo-specific differences in the level of apolipoprotein A-I. For the remaining twenty-nine biomarkers there was no evidence for lineage-specific differences. In fact, we find that many biomarkers show differences between individuals of the same species in different environments. Of the four lineagespecific biomarkers, only bilirubin showed no differences between wild- and captive-born great apes. We show that the major factor explaining the human-specific difference in bilirubin levels may be genetic. There are human-specific changes in the sequence of the promoter and the protein-coding sequence of uridine diphosphoglucuronosyltransferase 1 (UGT1A1), the enzyme that transforms bilirubin and toxic plant compounds into water-soluble, excretable metabolites. Experimental evidence that UGT1A1 is down-regulated in the human liver suggests that changes in the promoter may be responsible for the human-specific increase in bilirubin. We speculate that since cooking reduces toxic plant compounds, consumption of cooked foods, which is specific to humans, may have resulted in relaxed constraint on UGT1A1 which has in turn led to higher serum levels of bilirubin in humans.

<p>Primates in the wild face complex foraging decisions where they must assess the most valuable of different potential resources to exploit, as well recall the location of options that can be widely distributed. While differences in diet and ecology have long been thought to be an important factor influencing brain evolution in primates, it is less well understood what psychological abilities animals actually use when making foraging decisions. This dissertation examines cognitive domains that play a crucial role in supporting foraging behaviors--spatial memory and decision-making--by integrating both psychological and biological approaches to behavior. In particular, the research presented here examines multiple species of primates to address the cognitive skills that different animals use to solve foraging problems (at the proximate level of analysis), as well as why some species appear to solve such problems differently than other species (at the ultimate level of analysis).</p><p>The first goal of the dissertation is to compare closely-related species that vary in ecological characteristics, in order to illuminate how evolution shapes the cognitive skills used in foraging contexts. This component focuses on comparisons between chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus), humans' closest extant relatives. In addition, this component reports comparisons amongst strepsirrhines (Lemur catta, Eulemur mongoz, Propithecus coquereli, and Varecia subsp.) to model cognitive evolution in a taxonomic group with greater ecological diversity than Pan. The first two chapters test the hypothesis that more frugivorous species exhibit more accurate spatial memory skills, first by comparing apes' spatial memory abilities (Chapter 2), and then by comparing four species of lemurs on a related set of spatial memory tasks (Chapter 3). In subsequent chapters, I examine apes' decision-making strategies to test the hypothesis that chimpanzees are more willing to pay decision-making costs than are bonobos, due to differences in their feeding ecology. I focus on preferences about the timing of payoffs (Chapter 4); preferences about risk, or the variability in payoffs (Chapters 4 and 5); and preferences about ambiguity, or knowledge about available options (Chapter 6). </p><p>The second goal of the dissertation is to compare the psychological mechanisms that human and nonhuman great apes use for foraging, in order to identify potentially human-unique cognitive abilities. In terms of spatial memory, I examine whether other apes also exhibit human-like patterns of spatial memory development (Chapter 2). In terms of decision-making, I examine whether apes exhibit a suite of human-like biases when making value-based choices. In particular, I test whether emotional and motivational processes, which are critical components of human decision-making, also play a role in apes' choices (Chapters 4); whether apes are sensitive to social context when making economic decisions (Chapter 5); and whether apes are sensitive to their degree of knowledge when making choices under uncertainty (Chapter 6). Finally, I directly compare human and ape preferences on a matched task to assess whether humans use any unique psychological abilities when making decisions about risk (Chapter 7). In sum, this dissertation links studies of mechanism with hypotheses about function in order to illuminate the evolutionary roots of human's unique cognitive phenotype.</p> / Dissertation

Esta investigación se basa en los problemas detectados en la reproducción y desarrollo de los grandes simios y específicamente en los gorilas de las poblaciones que se mantienen ex situ dentro del proyecto de conservación Europeo (EEP. EAZA), y la necesidad de investigar factores que puedan mejorar su éxito reproductivo y su desarrollo. Los sujetos del estudio son miembros de una mega población que ha vivido a lo largo de varias décadas, y en algunos casos aún vive, en cautividad y, por tanto, en unas condiciones que difieren bastante de las propias de la especie en su medio natural tanto en lo concerniente a su hábitat, condiciones sociales y condiciones demográficas. Uno de los problemas específicos detectados en las poblaciones de grandes simios proviene del considerable número de individuos criados por humanos que existe en la población histórica y actual, y que presentan deficiencias en la conducta materna, en las relaciones sociales, y en la reproducción (en su término más amplio, no el mero hecho del apareamiento). Es por ello que se revisan aspectos del proceso de socialización, y de las conductas sociales haciendo una especial incidencia en los factores que influyen en la conducta materna, así como en los factores que pueden favorecer la reproducción en adultos que en fases iniciales de su desarrollo no tuvieron la oportunidad de socializarse de forma adecuada a la especie. Los estudios realizados se basan en el resultado de cuestionarios, observaciones cualitativas de ciertas conductas sociales y datos demográficos y específicos obtenidos del Studbook Europeo de Gorilas. Los resultados amplian el conocimiento sobre la adquisición de conductas sociales en los grandes simios en general, y en los gorilas en particular, y contribuyen a la mejora en la gestión de los programas de conservación ex situ. La investigación permitió identificar aquellos factores que favorecen un perfil maternal adecuado en las hembras de gorila cautivas, y por extensión en otras especies de grandes simios, poniendo de manifiesto los factores que afectan al desarrollo social de los gorilas criados por humanos y determinando cuáles son las circunstancias necesarias para realizar la introducción temprana de dichos individuos en un grupo de coespecíficos, de modo que su perfil social sea satisfactorio y puedan ser introducidos sin dificultad en otros grupos de coespecíficos al alcanzar la madurez sexual. Asimismo, se comprobaron los resultados reproductivos de la población de los individuos criados por humanos, y por tanto su contribución a la población total, y se determinaron circunstancias que podían favorecer su reproducción al alcanzar la madurez sexual. / Incidental factors in the reproduction and development of primates in captivity: Western gorillas " ex-situ " conservation (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) Authoress: Ma. Teresa Abelló Poveda Director(Principal) of the Thesis: Dra. Montserrat Colell Mimó TEXT: This research is based on the problems detected in the reproduction and development of great apes and specifically on the ex situ gorilla population (EEP. EAZA), and the need to investigate factors that could improve their breeding success and their development. The subjects of this study are members of a gentle population who has lived throughout several decades, and in some cases still it lives, in captivity and, therefore, under conditions that defer enough from their natural ones in the wild regarding habitat and social life. One of the specific problems detected in the great apes population comes from the considerable number of individuals hand-raised (by human beings) that exists in the historical and current population, and that present some deficiencies in their maternal behaviour, in their social relations, and in their breeding results. For that reason different aspects of the socialization process and social behaviour are analyzed on hand-reared animals, with special incidence on the factors that have some influence on maternal behavior and a successful breeding of individuals when reaching their sexual maturity. The different studies presented are based on the result from surveys (quantitative data), qualitative observations of social behaviour and specific demographic data obtained from the Gorilla European Studbook. The results give a better knowledge a on the acquisition of socila skills on great apes, and more specifically on gorillas, and it is worth to improve exsitu conservation (management/breeding) programmes This research allowed allowed to identify those factors that favor a good maternal profile in captive gorilla females, and for extension in other species of great apes. Revealing some factors of concern for the social development of hand-reared gorillas and determining which are the necessary circumstances to realize the early introduction of the above mentioned individuals in a group of coespecíficos, so that their develop with a adequate social profile and can be introduced without difficulty in other groups of coespecíficos

No description available.

Unsustainable international wildlife trade together with destruction and pollution of wild nature and spread of the invasive species, has long been recognised as a major threat to biodiversity. The subject of this thesis is an evaluation of international trade with some groups of mammals (Great apes and Rhinos) covered by CITES convention between European Union and third countries according EU Annual Reports in 2000 ? 2009. The trade has been divided into export and import and within these categories were evaluated main traded species, types of specimens, exporter and importer, source and purpose of the trade. It was found the trends of Great apes export and import increased, trend of Rhinos export decreased, the trend of Rhinos import increased over this period.

Chez les mammifères, les Eucaryotes représentent une composante importante des micro-organismes peuplant le tractus digestif. Au total, 16 champignons et 2 autres micro-eucaryotes ont été identifiés dans l’échantillon provenant de la personne saine. Par contre, peu d’espèces fongiques ont été identifiées via l’échantillon provenant du patient atteint de tuberculose.D'autre part, la diversité des eucaryotes qui peuplent les primates non humains tels que les grands singes demeure relativement inexploré .Pour ces raisons, nous avons entrepris une analyse moléculaire dans le but de détecter ces micro-organismes eucaryotes, dont certains demeurent pathogènes pour l’homme, en utilisant un seul échantillon fécal prélevé chez un gorille sauvage en provenance de l’ouest du Caméroun. Ces analyses ont été suivies d’une détection moléculaire spécifique du potentiel pathogène de ces eucaryotes du tractus gastro-intestinal des gorilles sauvages. En conséquence, ils ont permis d’identifier 87 espèces eucaryotes. Nous avons également signalé la présence de champignons pathogènes, et de parasites. Afin d’examiner d’une manière plus approfondie si ces gorilles abritaient d’autres parasites, nous avons analysé 91 échantillons fécaux à la recherche d’agents pathogènes comme la leishmaniose. Les résultats ont montré que 12 échantillons contenaient des parasites du genre Leishmania et 4 phlébotomes comme vecteurs. L’analyse moléculaire a été effectuée par enchaînement de 3 différentes réactions de polymérase en chaine (PCR) spécifiques aux agents de la leishmaniose. / Eukaryotes represent significant component of the mammalian intestinal tract. Their occurrence might have either beneficial or virulent parasitic effects on the host.A total of 16 fungal species and 2 other micro-eukaryotes were identified in healthy fecal sample. Contrary, a very few fungi were detected in the fecal sample from patient with resistant tuberculosis. On another hand , The diversity of eukaryotes inhabiting non-human primates such as great apes remains relatively unexplored .For these reasons we undertook an extensive molecular analysis for detecting eukaryotic microbiota including some human eukaryotic pathogens in a single fecal sample from a wild western lowland gorilla from Cameroon, and then followed by specific molecular detection of potential human eukaryotic pathogen in gastrointestinal tracts of wild population of gorillas. Our effort resulted in retrieving 87 eukaryotic species. We also reported the occurrence of pathogenic fungi, parasites. To further examine whether these gorillas harbor other sever parasites, we screened 91 of their fecal samples for the presence of blood borne pathogen such as Leishmania. The results showed that, 12 fecal samples contained Leishmania parasites, and 4 contained phlebotomine sand fly vectors. The molecular identity was determined by running 3 different polymerase chain reaction tests for detection of Leishmania major.

Les hommes semblent dotés d'une capacité fascinante : celle d'attribuer des croyances et des désirs aux autres afin d'expliquer leur comportement. Cette capacité, appelée Théorie de l'Esprit, nous permet de résoudre un problème complexe : à partir de la seule observation de leurs faits et gestes, nous déduisons les états mentaux qui poussent les autres à agir. Dans cette thèse, nous formalisons ce problème et en proposons une solution se fondant sur l'inférence bayésienne. Nous appliquons ce cadre théorique à deux situations particulières : l'attribution de croyances récursives en situations d'interaction sociale et l'apprentissage des préférences des autres. En combinant modèles computationnels et expériences comportementales, nous abordons avec une nouvelle perspective certaines questions fondamentales soulevées par l'étude de la Théorie de l'Esprit. Sommes-nous optimaux lorsque nous attribuons des croyances et des préférences aux autres ? Employons-nous des processus spécifiques quand nous interagissons avec d'autres personnes ? Quelles sont les contraintes évolutionnaires qui ont donné forme à notre Théorie de l'Esprit ? Cette capacité est-elle spécifiquement humaine ? Comment la Théorie de l'Esprit est-elle affectée dans l'autisme ? / Human beings have this surprising ability – coined Theory of Mind (ToM) – to reason about the mind of others and interpret their behaviour in terms of beliefs and desires. In this thesis, we focus on two critical aspects of ToM: (1) our ability to attribute recursive beliefs of the type “I think that you think that I think...” in the context of social interactions, (2) our ability to infer other people’s personal characteristics or preferences from observing their choices. This computational characterization of mechanisms at play in ToM provides new tools to address important questions such as: What is specific about learning in a context of social interactions? Are we optimal in our inference about others’ preferences or beliefs? Can we identify evolutionary constraints that may have shaped our current sophistication in ToM? Are these processes uniquely human? In which ways is ToM affected in disorders involving difficulties with social interactions? We investigated these questions combining computational modelling and behavioural experiments. The results of our studies offer significant advances in the description of the computational mechanisms underlying social cognition in humans and in non-human primates. Moreover, applying our paradigms to people from the autistic spectrum disorder allowed us to characterize what makes social cognition in autism so different.

Increasing anthropogenic alterations propelled by a growing human population paired with ecological perturbations and climate change has amplified rates of disease transmission at the human-wildlife interface. While attention has focused primarily on diseases that cause high rates of morbidity and mortality, there is a dearth of research on more common, non-lethal “mild” infections. However, despite less obvious and immediate consequences, these infections still have long-term effects on both public health and the conservation of wildlife. Currently, disease research is primarily cross-sectional, with a lack of longitudinal studies, leading to an undervaluation of the dynamic nature of disease systems. In addition to pathogen monitoring, concurrently being able to measure immune system activation will help to clarify the effects of non-lethal diseases on host health and to provide further insights into life-history trade-offs. Here, I investigated malaria parasite (Plasmodium spp.) infections, a “mild” disease, in wild habituated chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) residing in Taï National Park (TNP), Côte d'Ivoire. I used historical biological samples collected from non-human primates (including chimpanzees) and humans, as well as collected mosquitoes within their habitat. First, I identified longitudinal patterns of malaria parasite prevalence detected in chimpanzee faeces; next, I validated a biomarker of immune system activation, urinary neopterin, in wild chimpanzees; and lastly, within a larger ecological framework, I examined the interface of malaria parasite transmission between humans and non-human primates sharing a habitat. With a longitudinal study design, I found substantial intra- and inter-annual fluctuations in the faecal detection of malaria parasites across four non-consecutive sampling periods between 2004 and 2015. Peaks were observed during wet seasons—suggesting that environmental factors relating to vector abundance determine infection patterns. A higher prevalence was also detected in younger individuals, suggesting that the availability of susceptible hosts plays a role. With variations in parasite detection, similar trends should also be observed in health status. Urinary neopterin, an early inflammation marker of the non-specific immune response, increases during malaria parasite infections in humans and has been validated as a marker of immune system activation in laboratory and captive non-human primates. However, it was unclear whether it would be sensitive enough to provide a clear signal in mild diseases against the back-drop of co-infections commonly seen in wildlife. Therefore, we first needed to validate urinary neopterin as a biomarker of immune system activation during severe disease in wild animals. I measured urinary neopterin before, during, and after a severe respiratory outbreak and showed that levels corresponded to respiratory symptoms and predicted mortality. While urinary neopterin is sensitive enough to detect changes in immune system activation during severe disease, future research should still aim to validate its use in mild diseases, such as malaria. Finally, human-to-animal disease transmission is known to occur in TNP, with direct declines in chimpanzee populations observed that resulted from several outbreaks caused by human respiratory diseases. Given the zoonotic origin of malaria parasites in humans, I examined the genetic diversity of malaria parasites infecting humans and non-human primates sharing a habitat. Mosquitoes were also captured to identify potential vectors that may bridge transmission between host species. Only P. malariae was found in both humans and chimpanzees—however, the directionality of cross-species transmission would require a larger sample size to correctly assess. Additionally, no anopheline mosquitoes, the only known vector of mammalian malaria parasites, or mosquitoes positive for human- or great ape-specific malaria parasites were captured—suggesting that transmission events may be rare due to the sparsity of vectors in this region. This thesis shows that malaria epidemiology is a temporally and spatially diverse system that requires the use of longitudinal datasets and diverse sampling schemes. This thesis provides a baseline of data on which future malaria parasite research can build. Additionally, the validation of urinary neopterin will allow researchers to pursue questions on how mild diseases affect host health and to investigate questions relating to strategies and variations in life history trade-offs. This thesis is relevant for research on wildlife disease ecology, eco-immunology, and in the creation of pathogen and health surveillance programs.

The neocortex is the most recently evolved part of the mammalian brain which is involved in a repertoire of higher order brain functions, including those that separate humans from other animals. Humans have evolved an expanded neocortex over the course of evolution through a massive increase in neuron number (compared to our close relatives-­‐‑ the chimpanzees) in spite of sharing similar gestation time frames. So what do humans do differently compared to chimpanzees within the same time frame during their development? This dissertation addresses this question by comparing the developmental progression of neurogenesis between humans and chimpanzees using cerebral organoids as the model system. The usage of cerebral organoids, has enabled us to compare the development of both the human neocortex, and the chimpanzee neocortex from the very initiation of the neural phase of embryogenesis until very long periods of time. The results obtained so far suggest that the genetic programs underlying the development of the chimpanzee neocortex and the human neocortex are not very different, but rather the difference lies in the timing of the developmental progression. These results show that the chimpanzee neocortex spends lesser time in its proliferation phase, and allots lesser time to the generation of its neurons than the human neocortex. In more scientific terms, the neurogenic phase of the neocortex is shorter in chimpanzees than it is in humans. This conclusion is supported by (1) an earlier onset of gliogenesis in chimpanzees compared to humans which is indicative of a declining neurogenic phase, (2) an earlier increase in the chimpanzee neurogenic progenitors during development, compared to humans, (3) a higher number of stem cell– like progenitors in human cortices compared to chimpanzees, (4) a decline in neurogenic areas within the chimpanzee cerebral organoids over time compared to human cerebral organoids.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第20962号 / 理博第4414号 / 新制||理||1634(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科生物科学専攻 / (主査)教授 湯本 貴和, 教授 古市 剛史, 教授 友永 雅己 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM