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Evolution of Personality-Related Genes in Primates

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Summary

Human dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) and serotonin transporter (5-HTT) genes are polymorphic in terms of the repeat numbers of the GC-rich sequences located in the exon and promoter region, respectively. These genes have attracted special interest as genes related to personality traits. To assess the diversities of these genes in the evolutionary context, we examined the polymorphic regions of these genes in nonhuman primates. Simian primates (apes and monkeys) had four or more repeated sequences in the DRD4 gene polymorphic region, whereas pro simians had one or two repeat units of the 48-bp sequence. These observations imply that the frequency of long-repeated alleles tended to increase during primate evolution. On the other hand, apes and monkeys had relatively longer 5-HTT promoter sequences with an increased number of tandem repeats than human sequences, suggesting that the frequency of short-repeated alleles tended to increase during the process of hominization.

Keywords

  • Dopamine receptor D4
  • Primates
  • Personalty
  • Serotonin Transporter
  • polymorphism

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© 2001 Springer Japan

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Inoue-Murayama, M., Niimi, Y., Takenaka, O., Murayama, Y. (2001). Evolution of Personality-Related Genes in Primates. In: Miyoshi, K., Shapiro, C.M., Gaviria, M., Morita, Y. (eds) Contemporary Neuropsychiatry. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-67897-7_71

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-67897-7_71

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo

  • Print ISBN: 978-4-431-67992-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-4-431-67897-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive