No abstract

Knowledge of the macaque ABO blood group system has been critical in the development of nonhuman primates (NHPs) as a translational model. Serving not only as a useful homologue of the disease‐linked ABO system in humans, macaque ABO blood groups must be typed in colonies prior to performing experimental procedures requiring blood transfusion or transplantation. While the rates of blood type incompatibility and the distributions of A, B and AB blood groups are known in large samples of rhesus (Macaca mulatta) and cynomolgus (M. fascicularis) macaques, there is a dearth of blood type data from macaque populations occupying the rhesus‐cynomolgus hybrid zone in Southeast Asia. Using molecular phenotyping, we profiled ABO blood group distributions of 232 macaques from 10 populations in the hybrid zone and compared them to pure blood populations of the two species. We found that while these distributions are significantly different in most populations, there was a lack of differentiation between the hybrid and cynomolgus macaques as well as between the Thai and neighbouring populations. This supports a more expansive model of hybridization between rhesus and cynomolgus macaques than often proposed and highlights the increased need for consideration of population genetic structure in biomedical studies that employ macaques as animal models. Additionally, we report an enrichment of indeterminate blood types in the hybrid populations.

Almost half of all US households own a dog (Canis familiaris). Though these household pets can attack humans and other animals, they are also frequently victims of cruelty, neglect and theft. In human-oriented investigations, the tendency of domestic dogs to leave behind physical traces (such as hair) can serve as valuable links between crime scenes and suspects/victims. This demonstrated utility of canine biological evidence has created demand for genotyping marker sets for canine forensic genetic testing. Through research and casework, short tandem repeat (STR) panels have been shown to be very efficient for identity and parentage testing in dogs. However, there is an absence of comparative studies between different canine forensic identification kits. The Thermo Fisher Scientific Canine Genotypes TM Panel 1.1 and 2.1 Kits were originally designed and developed for routine and forensic use respectively, although both kits can be used for either purpose. In this study, we evaluated both STR panels to determine how critical forensic genetic metrics are affected by panel-to-panel variation in marker composition and design. Our results show that although STR panel composition can influence estimates such as inbreeding, combined power of discrimination and combined probability of exclusion, greater average allele number values exhibited across all markers in Panel 2.1 facilitated significantly more precise estimates of random match probability (RMP) and combined probability of identity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a theta (h) correction of 0.09 can be used to conservatively adjust RMPs generated from a small reference database of fewer than 50 samples, confirming that Panel 2.1 is a more robust forensic genotyping system than is Panel 1.1. for domestic dogs. We also demonstrate that opportunistic local sampling of fewer than 50 mixed-breed dogs can produce sufficient discriminatory and exclusionary power with either genotyping kit.