Genetic Consequences of Social Behavior and Demographic Structure

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The goal of this project is to initiate a fine-grained analysis of relationships between demographic and behavioral processes on the one hand and genetic structure on the other, in a natural, complexly organized mammalian population, savannah baboons (Papio cynocephalus), of Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Data on births, deaths, movements of males among social groups, social dominance, and reproductive behavior in three groups of free-living baboons extend back for almost two full generations, over a 20-year period, and provide a unique data set for the study. A significant characteristic of the multi-male, multi-female baboon groups, and those of most other monkey species, is their strongly matrilineal structure. The effects, within and among groups, of this matrilineal structure will be evaluated through analysis of maternally inherited, mitochondrial, DNA. Within individual social groups, long-term as well as short-term patterns of male residency, social dominance status, mate choice, and variability in female reproductive success are predicted to impact on patterns of genetic variability, both separately and in combination. Microsatellite genotyping, involving development of a microsatellite library for biparentally inherited, nuclear DNA, will be used to investigate these effects. An understanding of relationships between genetic variability and that of demography and social structure is critical for use of contemporary information to make inferences about the history of natural populations and projections of their future, as in evolutionary and conservation biology. Both the development of the molecular techniques and the empirical findings obtained in this research will have potentially broad application to other systems.