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Chimpanzee Personality and the Arginine Vasopressin Receptor 1A Genotype

Wilson, V. A.D.; Weiss, A.; Humle, T.; Morimura, N.; Udono, T.; Idani, G.; Matsuzawa, T.; Hirata, S.; Inoue-Murayama, M.

Authors

A. Weiss

T. Humle

N. Morimura

T. Udono

G. Idani

T. Matsuzawa

S. Hirata

M. Inoue-Murayama



Abstract

Polymorphisms of the arginine vasopressin receptor 1a (AVPR1a) gene have been linked to various measures related to human social behavior, including sibling conflict and agreeableness. In chimpanzees, AVPR1a polymorphisms have been associated with traits important for social interactions, including sociability, joint attention, dominance, conscientiousness, and hierarchical personality dimensions named low alpha/stability, disinhibition, and negative emotionality/low dominance. We examined associations between AVPR1a and six personality domains and hierarchical personality dimensions in 129 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) living in Japan or in a sanctuary in Guinea. We fit three linear and three animal models. The first model included genotype, the second included sex and genotype, and the third included genotype, sex, and sex × genotype. All personality phenotypes were heritable. Chimpanzees possessing the long form of the allele were higher in conscientiousness, but only in models that did not include the other predictors; however, additional analyses suggested that this may have been a consequence of study design. In animal models that included sex and sex × genotype, chimpanzees homozygous for the short form of the allele were higher in extraversion. Taken with the findings of previous studies of chimpanzees and humans, the findings related to conscientiousness suggest that AVPR1a may be related to lower levels of impulsive aggression. The direction of the association between AVPR1a genotype and extraversion ran counter to what one would expect if AVPR1a was related to social behaviors. These results help us further understand the genetic basis of personality in chimpanzees.

Citation

Wilson, V. A., Weiss, A., Humle, T., Morimura, N., Udono, T., Idani, G., Matsuzawa, T., Hirata, S., & Inoue-Murayama, M. (2017). Chimpanzee Personality and the Arginine Vasopressin Receptor 1A Genotype. Behavior Genetics, 47(2), 215-226. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-016-9822-2

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 29, 2016
Online Publication Date Nov 2, 2016
Publication Date Mar 1, 2017
Deposit Date Oct 4, 2024
Publicly Available Date Oct 23, 2024
Journal Behavior Genetics
Print ISSN 0001-8244
Publisher Springer (part of Springer Nature)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 47
Issue 2
Pages 215-226
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-016-9822-2
Keywords Animal model; AVPR1a; Chimpanzee; Heritability; Personality; Vasopressin
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4861256

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2016.
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.





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