Kin selection, social structure, gene flow, and the evolution of chimpanzees

Phillip A. Morin, James J. Moore, Ranajit Chakraborty, Li Jin, Jane Goodall, David S. Woodruff

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

326 Scopus citations

Abstract

Hypotheses about chimpanzee social behavior, phylogeography, and evolution were evaluated by noninvasive genotyping of free-ranging individuals from 20 African sites. Degrees of relatedness among individuals in one community were inferred from allele-sharing at eight nuclear simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci. Males are related on the order of half-siblings, and homozygosity is significantly increased at several SSR loci compared to Hardy-Weinberg expectations. These data support the kin-selection hypothesis for the evolution of cooperation among males. Sequence variation patterns at two mitochondrial loci indicate historically high long-distance gene flow and clarity the relationships among three allopatric subspecies. The unexpectedly large genetic distance between the western subspecies, Pan troglodytes verus, and the other two subspecies suggests a divergence time of about 1.58 million years. This result, if confirmed at nuclear loci and supported by eco-behavioral data, implies that P. t. versus should be elevated to full species rank.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1193-1201
Number of pages9
JournalScience
Volume265
Issue number5176
DOIs
StatePublished - 26 Aug 1994

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