ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Within multi-male and multi-female mammalian societies, paternity assignment is crucial for evaluating male reproductive success, dominance hierarchy, and inbreeding avoidance. It is, however, difficult to determine paternity because of female promiscuity during reproduction. Noninvasive molecular techniques (e.g., fecal DNA) make it possible to match the genetic father to his offspring. In the current study, a troop of free-ranging Taihangshan macaques (Macaca mulatta tcheliensis) in Mt. Taihangshan area, Jiyuan, China, was selected for studying the paternity. We successfully screened a set of microsatellite loci from fecal DNA and evaluated the efficiency of these loci for paternity testing using clearly recorded data of maternity. RESULTS: The results showed that: 1) ten loci out of 18 candidate microsatellite loci were amplified successfully in the fecal samples of Taihangshan macaques. The error probability in maternity assignments and paternity testing was very low as indicated by their power of discrimination (0.70 to 0.95), power of exclusion (0.43 to 0.84), and the values of polymorphic information content ranging from 0.52 to 0.82; 2) the combined probability of exclusion in paternity testing for ten qualified loci was as high as 99.999%, and the combined probability of exclusion reached 99.99% when the seven most polymorphic loci were adopted; 3) the offspring were assigned to their biological mother correctly and also matched with their genetic father. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that the ten polymorphic microsatellite loci, especially a core set of seven most polymorphic loci, provided an effective and reliable tool for noninvasive paternity testing in free-ranging rhesus macaques.
ABSTRACT
The remaining population of Macaca mulatta tcheliensis, approximately 3,000 individuals, is currently confined to the southern region of Mount Taihangshan, northern China. Using data collected from February 2003 to November 2012, we examined female reproductive characteristics in a seasonally food supplemented free-ranging group of M. m. tcheliensis (Wangwu 1, WW-1), inhabiting the Taishangshan Macaque National Nature Reserve (TMNNR), Jiyuan, China. We tested a series of predictions regarding the degree to which M. m. tcheliensis is best considered as a "strict income breeder," a "relaxed income breeder" or a "capital breeder." This group was comprised 18 adult females who produced 64 infants over the 10-year study period. In our study group (WW-1) adult female macaques gave birth to an average of 0.71 ± 0.26 infants per year. Infant mortality was 13.4 ± 19.3%. The age at first birth for mothers was 4.9 ± 0.5 years old. The mean inter-birth interval (IBI) was 15.4 ± 4.9 months. Based on the fact M. m. tcheliensis is a strictly seasonal breeder (76.6% of births occurred between April and May) with infants born during a time of the year when food availability appears to be high, and that their IBI is intermediate in length compared with other macaque populations, our results suggest that M. m. tcheliensis follows a birth pattern most consistent with a "relaxed income breeder" strategy.
