Dominance rank-associated gene expression is widespread, sex-specific, and a precursor to high social status in wild male baboons.

ABSTRACT: In humans and other hierarchical species, social status is tightly linked to variation in health and fitness-related traits. Experimental manipulations of social status in female rhesus macaques suggest that this relationship is partially explained by status effects on immune gene regulation. However, social hierarchies are established and maintained in different ways across species: While some are based on kin-directed nepotism, others emerge from direct physical competition. We investigated how this variation influences the relationship between social status and immune gene regulation in wild baboons, where hierarchies in males are based on fighting ability but female hierarchies are nepotistic. We measured rank-related variation in gene expression levels in adult baboons of both sexes a

SUBMITTER: Lea AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6310778 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature