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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Life Sciences

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Doctoral Dissertations

Theses/Dissertations

Evolution

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

De-Coding The Impact Of Evolved Changes In Gene Expression And Cellular Phenotype On Primate Evolution, Trisha Zintel Feb 2020

De-Coding The Impact Of Evolved Changes In Gene Expression And Cellular Phenotype On Primate Evolution, Trisha Zintel

Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of the dissertation work outlined here was to investigate the influence of proximal processes contributing to evolutionary differences in phenotypes among primate species. There are numerous previous comparative analyses of gene expression between primate brain regions. However, primate brain tissue samples are relatively rare, and my results have contributed to the pre-existing data on more well-studied primates (i.e. humans, chimpanzees, macaques, marmosets) as well as produced information on more rarely-studied primates (i.e. patas monkey, siamang, spider monkey). Additionally, the primary visual cortex has not previously been as extensively studied at the level of gene expression as other brain …


Loss Of Cell Surface Agal During Catarrhine Evolution: Possible Implications For The Evolution Of Resistance To Viral Infections And For Oligocene Lineage Divergence, Idalia Aracely Rodriguez Apr 2014

Loss Of Cell Surface Agal During Catarrhine Evolution: Possible Implications For The Evolution Of Resistance To Viral Infections And For Oligocene Lineage Divergence, Idalia Aracely Rodriguez

Doctoral Dissertations

The divergence of the two superfamilies belonging to the Infraorder Catarrhini –Cercopithecoidea (Old World monkeys) and Hominoidea (apes, including humans) – is generally assumed to have occurred during the Oligocene, between 38 and 20 million years ago. Genetic studies indicate that this time period was one of active genetic evolution under strong purifying selection for catarrhine primates. This includes selective pressures on the glycoprotein galactosyltransferase 1 (GGTA1) gene and subsequent inactivation “clocked” at approximately 28 ma, possibly prior to the Cercopithecoidea/Hominoidea split. The GGTA1 gene codes for an a1,3 galactosyltransferase (GT) enzyme that synthesizes a terminal disaccharide, …