Colour Vision Genetics Learned from New World Monkeys in Santa Rosa, Costa Rica

摘要: By the mid-1980s, it was known that colour vision polymorphic in New World monkeys due to allelic variation of L/M opsin gene. However, until early 2000s, unknown whether this polymorphism existed within social groups wild monkeys, other than mixed-species troops tamarins. In 2003, I embarked on a collaborative project with Linda Fedigan and colleagues Santa Rosa National Park. We collected faecal samples from white-faced capuchin (Cebus capucinus) black-handed spider (Ateles geoffroyi) were individually identified by researchers. The major findings our genetic studies (1) confirmation each two species, (2) discovery novel spectral tuning mechanism ateline alleles, (3) population evidence for balancing selection alleles (4) unequal allele frequencies opsins (5) hybrid sympatric howler monkeys. Of equal importance has been ecological side study. chapter summarize basic knowledge visual genes primates then describe contribution understanding primate evolution.