Rhesus macaque social functioning is paternally, but not maternally, inherited by sons: potential implications for...

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Genetics
• Primate Behavior
• Quantitative Genetics

Background:

• Autistic traits are heritable and continuously distributed in humans.
• Parent of origin effects, beyond simple Mendelian inheritance, may influence autistic trait patterns.
• Rhesus macaques provide a model for studying parent of origin effects due to their breeding systems producing half-siblings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differential paternal versus maternal inheritance of social functioning in male rhesus macaques.
• To assess parent of origin effects on quantitative autistic traits using a primate model.
• To explore genetic contributions to social behavior variation.

Main Methods:

• Assessed social functioning in 407 male rhesus macaques using ethological observations and a quantitative autistic trait scale.
• Employed Restricted Maximum Likelihood mixed models to estimate genetic variance components.
• Calculated genetic contribution (proportion of phenotypic variance) and narrow-sense heritability.

Main Results:

• Significant genetic contributions to social functioning were found for paternal half-siblings, but not maternal half-siblings.
• Findings were consistent across different behavioral measures and analysis methods.
• Paternal inheritance effects were similar in full-siblings and paternal half-siblings.

Conclusions:

• Social functioning in male rhesus macaques appears to be paternally, rather than maternally, inherited.
• This research may provide insights into sex differences in the genetic liability of autism.
• Further studies with larger samples, including females and molecular analyses, are warranted.