The use of non-human primates as animal models for the study of hepatitis viruses

Hepatitis viruses belong to different families and have in common a striking hepatotropism and restrictions for propagation in cell culture. The transmissibility of hepatitis is in great part limited to non-human primates. Enterically transmitted hepatitis viruses (hepatitis A virus and hepatitis E virus) can induce hepatitis in a number of Old World and New World monkey species, while the host range of non-human primates susceptible to hepatitis viruses transmitted by the parenteral route (hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus and hepatitis delta virus) is restricted to few species of Old World monkeys, especially the chimpanzee. Experimental studies on non-human primates have provided an invaluable source of information regarding the biology and pathogenesis of these viruses, and represent a still indispensable tool for vaccine and drug testing.

Random amplification of polymorphic DNA reveals clonal relationships among enteropathogenic Escherichia coli isolated from non-human primates and humans

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strains are important agents of infantile diarrhea all over the world, gaining even greater importance in developing countries. EPEC have also been isolated from various animal species, but most isolates belong to serotypes that differ from those recovered from humans. However, it has been demonstrated that several isolates from non-human primates belong to the serogroups and/or serotypes related to those implicated in human disease. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic differences between thirteen strains isolated from non-human primates and the same number of strains isolated from human infections. Human isolates belonged to the same serogroup/serotype as the monkey strains and the evaluation was done by analysis of random amplified polymorphic DNA. Dendrogram analysis showed that there was no clustering between human and monkey strains. Human and non-human isolates of the EPEC serotypes O127:H40 and O128:H2 shared 90 and 87% of their bands, respectively, indicating strong genomic similarity between the strains, leading to the speculation that they may have arisen from the same pathogenic clone. To our knowledge, this study is the first one comparing genomic similarity between human and non-human primate strains and the results provide further evidence that monkey EPEC strains correlate with human EPEC, as suggested in a previous investigation.

Evaluación del efecto adipogénico de las hormonas recombinantes del crecimiento normal y variante de primates

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias con Especialidad en Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Genética) UANL

Evolución de las regiones intergénicas del locus GH-PL en los primates del viejo mundo

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias con Especialidad en Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Genética) UANL

Disección bioinformática y experimental de la fase de expansión del locus GH en primates.

Tesis (Doctorado en Ciencias con Orientación en Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Genética) UANL, 2012.

Expresión del locus GH en el ojo de primates superiores.

Tesis (Doctor en Ciencias con especialidad en Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Genética) UANL, 2014.

La transmissió de la cultura en els primats. 'La transmisión de la cultura en los primates'.

Las ciencias sociales proclaman la cultura como un hecho o estadio que pertenece únicamente al ser humano. Sin embargo, los últimos estudios de campo que están embarcados en la investigación de la evolución de la cultura utilizan el término evolución en el sentido más darwiniano de la palabra.

Primats. 'Primates'

En este v??deo, despu??s de una breve explicaci??n sobre la evoluci??n de las formas de vida en la tierra, se pasa a describir las especies, y sus caracter??sticas, del orden de los primates. Todo ello enmarcado en el contexto del zool??gico de Barcelona.

Los inicios de la comunicación : estudio comparado de niños y primates no humanos e implicaciones para el autismo.

Existe una investigación previa con el título: La génesis de la comunicación y del símbolo : estudio comparado con poblaciones normales, autistas y primates no humanos

El primer viaje transatlántico : Los primates.

Programa emitido el 11 de abril de 1996

La génesis de la comunicación y del símbolo : estudio comparado con poblaciones normales, autistas y primates no humanos.

Abordar una labor de reconceptualización de la génesis de la comunicación intencional y su relación con las capacidades de pensamiento interpersonal (teoría de la mente) y los trastornos específicos del autismo infantil, desde un nuevo enfoque caracterizado por dos rasgos fundamentales: hacer uso de una perspectiva comparada (niños normales, niños autistas y primates no humanos) y estar situado en un contexto de descubrimiento. Planteamiento de hipótesis. 16 niños normales (bebés), niños autistas, primates no humanos (gorilas). El recurso metodológico fundamental utilizado es la observación sistematizada del comportamiento social y comunicativo de los sujetos de estudio, a través de las grabaciones en vídeo de diversas situaciones de interacción con adultos. La investigación, globalmente considerada, se apoya en la combinación de estudios idiográficos, con minucioso seguimiento de la evolución del comportamiento de los sujetos (a través de la específica categorización y codificación del mismo) y estudios nomotéticos que proporcionan una información más general del comportamiento representativo de la población de estudio. Escalas de Uzgiris y Hunt. Figuras, tablas. Los resultados obtenidos permiten cuestionar la hipótesis meta-representacional sobre la naturaleza diferencial de las conductas comunicativas protodeclarativas y su relación de precursividad con las capacidades de teoría de la mente, así como sus implicaciones en las hipótesis explicativas del autismo. Al mismo tiempo, estos resultados proporcionan las claves fundamentales para generar una hipótesis alternativa. Esta hipótesis alternativa se construye a partir de la justificación de la comunicación prelingüística basada en las capacidades de representación de primer orden y de la naturaleza netamente social del protodeclarativo, para poder reconsiderar su relación de precursividad con las capacidades de teoría de la mente y poder explicar el déficit específico del autismo infantil. Realizan propuestas concretas de intervención terapeútica en autismo que incorporan de forma constructiva las conclusiones fundamentales de esta investigación.

Adaptive evolution of four microcephaly genes and the evolution of brain size in anthropoid primates

The anatomical basis and adaptive function of the expansion in primate brain size have long been studied; however, we are only beginning to understand the genetic basis of these evolutionary changes. Genes linked to human primary microcephaly have received much attention as they have accelerated evolutionary rates along lineages leading to humans. However, these studies focus narrowly on apes, and the link between microcephaly gene evolution and brain evolution is disputed. We analyzed the molecular evolution of four genes associated with microcephaly (ASPM, CDK5RAP2, CENPJ, MCPH1) across 21 species representing all major clades of anthropoid primates. Contrary to prevailing assumptions, positive selection was not limited to or intensified along the lineage leading to humans. In fact we show that all four loci were subject to positive selection across the anthropoid primate phylogeny. We developed clearly defined hypotheses to explicitly test if selection on these loci was associated with the evolution of brain size. We found positive relationships between both CDK5RAP2 and ASPM and neonatal brain mass and somewhat weaker relationships between these genes and adult brain size. In contrast, there is no evidence linking CENPJ and MCPH1 to brain size evolution. The stronger association of ASPM and CDK5RAP2 evolution with neonatal brain size than with adult brain size is consistent with these loci having a direct effect on prenatal neuronal proliferation. These results suggest that primate brain size may have at least a partially conserved genetic basis. Our results contradict a previous study that linked adaptive evolution of ASPM to changes in relative cortex size; however, our analysis indicates that this conclusion is not robust. Our finding that the coding regions of two widely expressed loci has experienced pervasive positive selection in relation to a complex, quantitative developmental phenotype provides a notable counterexample to the commonly asserted hypothesis that cisregulatory regions play a dominant role in phenotypic evolution. Key words: ASPM, MCPH1, CDK5RAP2, CENPJ, brain, neurogenesis, primates.

Trypanosoma cruzi in Brazilian Amazonia: Lineages TCI and TCIIa in wild primates, Rhodnius spp. and in humans with Chagas disease associated with oral transmission

In this study, we provide phylogenetic and biogeographic evidence that the Trypanosomo cruzi lineages T. cruzi I (TCI) and T. cruzi IIa (TCIIa) circulate amongst non-human primates in Brazilian Amazonia, and are transmitted by Rhodnius species in overlapping arboreal transmission cycles, sporadically infecting humans. TO presented higher prevalence rates, and no lineages other than TCI and TCIIa were found in this study in wild monkeys and Rhodnius from the Amazonian region. We characterised TO and TCIIa from wild primates (16 TO and five TCIIa), Rhodnius spp, (13 TCI and nine TCIIa), and humans with Chagas disease associated with oral transmission (14 TO and five TCIIa) in Brazilian Amazonia. To our knowledge, TCIIa had not been associated with wild monkeys until now. Polymorphisms of ssrDNA, cytochrome b gene sequences and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) patterns clearly separated TCIIa from TCIIb-e and TCI lineages, and disclosed small intra-lineage polymorphisms amongst isolates from Amazonia. These data are important in understanding the complexity of the transmission cycles, genetic structure, and evolutionary history of T cruzi populations circulating in Amazonia, and they contribute to both the unravelling of human infection routes and the pathological peculiarities of Chagas disease in this region. (C) 2008 Australian Society for Parasitology Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.