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O A Ryder

Publications and source records attributed to O A Ryder.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Cytogenetic analysis of California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) chromosomes: comparison with chicken (Gallus gallus) macrochromosomes.

The California condor is the largest flying bird in North America and belongs to a group of New World vultures. Recovering from a near fatal population decline, and currently with only 197 extant individuals, the species remains listed as endangered. Very little genetic information exists for this species, although sexing methods employing chromosome analysis or W-chromosome specific amplification is routinely applied for the management of this monomorphic species. Keeping in mind that genetic conditions like chondrodystrophy have been identified, preliminary steps were undertaken in this study to understand the genome organization of the condor. This included an extensive cytogenetic analysis that provided (i) a chromosome number of 80 (with a likelihood of an extra pair of microchromosomes), and (ii) information on the centromeres, telomeres and nucleolus organizer regions. Further, a comparison between condor and chicken macrochromosomes was obtained by using individual chicken chromosome specific paints 1-9 and Z and W on condor metaphase spreads. Except for chromosomes 4 and Z, each of the chicken (GGA) macrochromosomes painted a single condor (GCA) macrochromosome. GGA4 paint detected complete homology with two condor chromosomes, viz., GCA4 and GCA9 providing additional proof that the latter are ancestral chromosomes in the birds. The chicken Z chromosome showed correspondence with both Z and W in the condor. The homology suggests that the condor sex chromosomes have not completely differentiated during evolution, which is unlike the majority of the non-ratites studied up till now. Overall, the study provides detailed cytogenetic and basic comparative information on condor chromosomes. These findings significantly advance the effort to study the chondrodystrophy that is responsible for over ten percent mortality in the condor.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Resolution of the early placental mammal radiation using Bayesian phylogenetics.

Molecular phylogenetic studies have resolved placental mammals into four major groups, but have not established the full hierarchy of interordinal relationships, including the position of the root. The latter is critical for understanding the early biogeographic history of placentals. We investigated placental phylogeny using Bayesian and maximum-likelihood methods and a 16.4-kilobase molecular data set. Interordinal relationships are almost entirely resolved. The basal split is between Afrotheria and other placentals, at about 103 million years, and may be accounted for by the separation of South America and Africa in the Cretaceous. Crown-group Eutheria may have their most recent common ancestry in the Southern Hemisphere (Gondwana).

Africa↗
PubMed2001

Molecular phylogenetics and the origins of placental mammals.

The precise hierarchy of ancient divergence events that led to the present assemblage of modern placental mammals has been an area of controversy among morphologists, palaeontologists and molecular evolutionists. Here we address the potential weaknesses of limited character and taxon sampling in a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic analysis of 64 species sampled across all extant orders of placental mammals. We examined sequence variation in 18 homologous gene segments (including nearly 10,000 base pairs) that were selected for maximal phylogenetic informativeness in resolving the hierarchy of early mammalian divergence. Phylogenetic analyses identify four primary superordinal clades: (I) Afrotheria (elephants, manatees, hyraxes, tenrecs, aardvark and elephant shrews); (II) Xenarthra (sloths, anteaters and armadillos); (III) Glires (rodents and lagomorphs), as a sister taxon to primates, flying lemurs and tree shrews; and (IV) the remaining orders of placental mammals (cetaceans, artiodactyls, perissodactyls, carnivores, pangolins, bats and core insectivores). Our results provide new insight into the pattern of the early placental mammal radiation.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Genetic divergence of orangutan subspecies (Pongo pygmaeus).

Microsatellites and mitochondrial DNA sequences were studied for the two subspecies of orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), which are located in Borneo (P. p. pygmaeus) and Sumatra (P. p. abelii), respectively. Both subspecies possess marked genetic diversity. Genetic subdivision was identified within the Sumatran orangutans. The genetic differentiation between the two subspecies is highly significant for ND5 region but not significant for 16s rRNA or microsatellite data by exact tests, although FST estimates are highly significant for these markers. Divergence time between the two subspecies is approximately 2.3 +/- 0.5 million years ago (MYA) estimated from our data, much earlier than the isolation of their geological distribution. Neither subspecies underwent a recent bottleneck, though the Sumatran subspecies might have experienced expansion approximately 82,000 years ago. The estimated effective population sizes for both subspecies are on the order of 104. Our results contribute additional information that may be interpreted in the context of orangutan conservation efforts.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Molecular basis of albinism in the rhesus monkey.

Sequence analysis of the tyrosinase (TYR) coding region from one albino rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) family revealed that the two monkeys with phenotype similar to human TYR-negative oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) were homozygous for a missense mutation (S184TER) in exon 1 at codon 184. The offspring of one of the albino monkey ("Kangkang") are all heterozygous for the S184TER mutation, but the S184TER mutation was not observed in 93 control individuals. We conclude that the point mutation is responsible and sufficient to generate the albino rhesus monkey phenotype. The rough age of the S184TER nonsense mutation may be about 0.8 million years using a rate of 0.16% per million years.

Albinism, Oculocutaneous↗
PubMed2000

Identification of monozygotic twin chimpanzees by microsatellite analysis.

Zygosity determination is important for epidemiological, biological, obstetric, and prognostic studies in both human and nonhuman primates. In this study, microsatellite loci were used to screen a pair of chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) twins and their parents. The twins share identical alleles at all loci tested. The probability of dizygotic origin is estimated to be 2.9 x 10(-11). Even after excluding linkage of loci on the same chromosome, the probability is still low enough (3.7 x 10(-9)) to exclude dizygotic origin. MHC typing was also done on Patr-DRB and Patr-DQB loci and the twins share identical alleles at both loci, consistent with the microsatellite results. Together these results demonstrate a monozygotic origin for the chimp twins. Our results suggest that microsatellite analysis is a powerful method for zygosity determination, which can be screened reliably and efficiently.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Mitochondrial sequences show diverse evolutionary histories of African hominoids.

Phylogenetic trees for the four extant species of African hominoids are presented, based on mtDNA control region-1 sequences from 1,158 unique haplotypes. We include 83 new haplotypes of western chimpanzees and bonobos. Phylogenetic analysis of this enlarged database, which takes intraspecific geographic variability into account, reveals different patterns of evolution among species and great heterogeneity in species-level variation. Several chimpanzee and bonobo clades (and even single social groups) have retained substantially more mitochondrial variation than is seen in the entire human species. Among the 811 human haplotypes, those that branch off early are predominantly but not exclusively African. Neighbor joining trees provide strong evidence that eastern chimpanzee and human clades have experienced reduced effective population sizes, the latter apparently since the Homo sapiens-neanderthalensis split. Application of topiary pruning resolves ambiguities in the phylogenetic tree that are attributable to homoplasies in the data set. The diverse patterns of mtDNA sequence variation seen in today's hominoid taxa probably reflect historical differences in ecological plasticity, female-biased dispersal, range fragmentation over differing periods of time, and competition among social groups. These results are relevant to the origin of zoonotic diseases, including HIV-1, and call into question some aspects of the current taxonomic treatment and conservation management of gorillas and chimpanzees.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Sequence evolution of the CCR5 chemokine receptor gene in primates.

The chemokine receptor CCR5 can serve as a coreceptor for M-tropic HIV-1 infection and both M-tropic and T-tropic SIV infection. We sequenced the entire CCR5 gene from 10 nonhuman primates: Pongo pygmaeus, Hylobates leucogenys, Trachypithecus francoisi, Trachypithecus phayrei, Pygathrix nemaeus, Rhinopithecus roxellanae, Rhinopithecus bieti, Rhinopithecus avunculus, Macaca assamensis, and Macaca arctoides. When compared with CCR5 sequences from humans and other primates, our results demonstrate that: (1) nucleotide and amino acid sequences of CCR5 among primates are highly homologous, with variations slightly concentrated on the amino and carboxyl termini; and (2) site Asp13, which is critical for CD4-independent binding of SIV gp120 to Macaca mulatta CCR5, was also present in all other nonhuman primates tested here, suggesting that those nonhuman primate CCR5s might also bind SIV gp120 without the presence of CD4. The topologies of CCR5 gene trees constructed here conflict with the putative opinion that the snub-nosed langurs compose a monophyletic group, suggesting that the CCR5 gene may not be a good genetic marker for low-level phylogenetic analysis. The evolutionary rate of CCR5 was calculated, and our results suggest a slowdown in primates after they diverged from rodents. The synonymous mutation rate of CCR5 in primates is constant, about 1.1 x 10(-9) synonymous mutations per site per year. Comparisons of Ka and Ks suggest that the CCR5 genes have undergone negative or purifying selection. Ka/Ks ratios from cercopithecines and colobines are significantly different, implying that selective pressures have played different roles in the two lineages.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Centric fusion differences among Oryx dammah, O. gazella, and O. leucoryx (Artiodactyla, Bovidae)

G- and C-banded karyotypes of the genus Oryx were compared using the standard karyotype of Bos taurus. Chromosomal complements were 2n = 56 in O. gazella gazella, 2n = 58 in O. g. beisa and O. g. callotis, 2n = 56-58 in O. dammah, and 2n = 57-58 in O. leucoryx. The number of autosomal arms in all karyotypes was 58. Nearly all variation in diploid number was the result of three independent centric fusions, but one 2n = 57 specimen of O. g. gazella deviated from the normal complement of 2n = 56 due to XXY aneuploidy. A 2;17 centric fusion was fixed in O. g. gazella, whereas O. g. beisa and O. g. callotis lacked this fusion and had indistinguishable karyotypes. Oryx dammah was polymorphic for a 2;15 centric fusion, and O. leucoryx was polymorphic for an 18;19 centric fusion. The five Oryx taxa shared a fixed 1;25 centric fusion; the small acrocentric element involved in the 1;25 fusion was identified by fluorescence in situ hybridization using a cosmid specific to Bos chromosome 25. The X and Y chromosomes were also conserved among the five taxa. Oryx g. gazella differed from the other Oryx species because of the fixed 2;17 centric fusion. This difference reflects an apparently longer period of geographic isolation between O. g. gazella and other populations of Oryx, and it is consistent with the classification of O. gazella and O. beisa as distinct species (see Kingdon, 1997). The lack of monobrachial relationships among the Oryx taxa indicates that sterility barriers between species have not developed. Viability of hybrid offspring constitutes a threat to captive breeding programs designed for endangered species conservation; in the case of Oryx, the 2;15, 2;17, and 18;19 metacentrics could serve as marker chromosomes for assessing hybridization between certain Oryx taxa.

Aneuploidy↗
PubMed1999

[The relationship among human, gorilla, chimpanzee and orangutan].

The phylogeny of hominoid is still an open question. The contrary point is which relationship is more closed related between human and gorilla and human and chimpanzee. Tyrosinase is the essential enzyme in melanogenesis. The mutation of tyrosinase gene causes albinism. The five exons of tyrosinase gene were sequenced for gorilla, chimpanzee, orangutan and gibbon in hominoid. Combined with the human tyrosinase gene sequence, the gene tree was constructed using parsimony method. The results show that the relationship between human and gorilla is more closed related than between human and chimpanzee.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Chimp research.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Mitochondrial control region and 12S rRNA variation in Przewalski's horse (Equus przewalskii).

Variation in the control region and the 12S rRNA gene of all surviving mitochondrial lineages of Przewalski's horse was investigated. Variation is low despite the present day population being descended from 13 individuals probably representing animals from three different regions of its range. Phylogenetic comparison of these sequences, with sequences for the domestic horse, does not resolve the ancestral status of either horse.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

[Mitochondrial DNA sequence evolution and conservation relevance of snub-nosed langurs].

The classification and phylogenetic relationships of the snub-nosed langurs (Rhinopithecus) are still open questions. We have sequenced a mitochondrial cytochrome b gene fragment from R. roxellana, R. bieti, R. avunculus and Presbytis phayrei. There are 47 sites (19%) characterized by variation. A series of evolutionary trees with concordant topology has been derived by using parsimony, maximum likelihood and distance methods, which may have resolved the evolutionary relationships of the three golden monkey species. R. bieti is more closely related to R. avunculus than to R. roxellana. The divergence among those three species occurred about 2-6 million years ago. Our results suggest that Rhinopithecus is a valid genus, and avunculus should be placed into this genus. Our non-invasive genetic analysis provided useful information for the genetic management of the captive population at the Kunming Institute of Zoology.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Mitochondrial DNA diversity in gorillas.

A highly variable portion of the mitochondrial DNA control region was sequenced in 63 free-living and captive gorillas including representatives of the three recognized subspecies. This region has proven useful for evaluation of relative levels of genetic variability in populations, for clarification of the subspecies identity of a wild population, and for examination of the phylogenetic relationships of the three subspecies. The eastern lowland (Gorilla gorilla graueri) and mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei) sequences are distinct but closely related, with low variability within each subspecies. Two currently isolated populations of mountain gorillas, one in the Virungas Volcanoes region and the other in the Bwindi Forest, are indistinguishable using this mitochondrial DNA region for comparison. The subspecies identity of the Bwindi Forest group has previously been debated. Mitochondrial D-loop DNA variability within the western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) is very high. The genetic distance between the most divergent gorilla sequences is approximately as great as the distance between sequences of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus).

Animals↗