Biology subjects

Dongre, P.

Publications and source records attributed to Dongre, P..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Quantifying direct and indirect maternal effects on male vervets rank post-dispersal

Early life experiences have important fitness consequences across animals, with maternal environments playing a crucial role in some species survival and reproduction during adulthood. A potential pathway linking maternal behaviour with individual fitness is dominance rank, which in some primates - like cercopithecines - is maternally inherited during the juvenile period and strongly linked to individual social behaviour and reproductive success. While females of these species maintain their rank for life in their natal group, males disperse and must integrate into new dominance hierarchies. In this context, the long-term effects of maternal characteristics on male rank post-dispersal and the potential of males social behaviour in mediating this relationship remains unexplored. Using 16 years of data from a wild vervet monkey population (Chlorocebus pygerythrus), we tested the effects of maternal rank, grooming and proximity on the rank males acquired their first year post-dispersal. In addition, we measured the extent to which the males own social behaviour both pre- and post-dispersal mediate this relationship combining Bayesian social networks with mediation analyses. We did not find support for a mediating effect of males social behaviour on the relationship between maternal characteristics and male rank post-dispersal. Instead, we found that maternal characteristics influence males social behaviour during the juvenile period and that males own social behaviour post-dispersal (grooming out-degree) is related to their rank when they integrate into a new group. In addition, we found that consistency in males social behaviour pre- to post-dispersal is restricted to grooming behaviour, highlighting the different roles of proximity and grooming relationships in vervet societies. Taken together these results reveal very limited long-term effects of maternal characteristics on male behaviour during the heavily underexplored process of dispersal and the flexibility of male vervet social behaviour following a change in social environment.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2026

Expanding the catabolic capacity of Pseudomonas putida to acetovanillone, 5-carboxyvanillate, and vanillyl glyoxylate for muconate production from kraft lignin-derived aromatics

The pulp and paper industry produces large volumes of condensed kraft lignin, which is challenging to convert to single chemical products. For this purpose, tandem chemical depolymerization and bioconversion to a single atom-efficient product is a potentially promising strategy. In this study, we conducted copper-catalyzed oxidative depolymerization using pine-derived kraft lignin to generate multiple bioavailable aromatic monomers at a yield of 4.5 weight% (wt%; g monomers per g lignin) from both C--O and C--C bond cleavage, followed by counter-current extraction with a 52 wt% monomer recovery. This resulted in an oxidized lignin product containing vanillin, vanillate, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, 4-hydroxybenzoate, 5-formylvanillin, 5-carboxyvanillin, 5-carboxyvanillate, acetovanillone, and vanillyl glyoxylate. Based on this stream composition, we engineered the industrially relevant soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida KT2440 to catabolize the latter five compounds via overexpression of ten heterologous genes (acvABCDEFSYK-6, vceABSYK-6, ligW2SYK-6, and mdlCPP). We combined these engineered pathways with previously reported strategies for muconate production from G- and H-type monomers to generate P. putida KMM428, which utilized 93.6 {+/-} 0.2 mol% of the quantified aromatic monomers in a depolymerized kraft lignin mixture, and produced muconate at a yield of 99 {+/-} 3 mol%, on a quantified monomer basis. Together, this work increases the theoretical carbon conversion efficiency of this process by 37.6 {+/-} 0.1 mol% through incorporation of three {beta}-5 cleavage products, in addition to traditional G-type monomers.

synthetic biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Asrij/OCIAD1 depletion reduces inflammatory microglial activation and ameliorates Aβ pathology in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model

BackgroundAlzheimers disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the accumulation of amyloid-beta (A{beta}) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, neuroinflammation, and glial activation. Asrij/OCIAD1 (Ovarian Carcinoma Immunoreactive Antigen Domain containing protein 1) is an AD-associated factor. Increased Asrij levels in the brains of AD patients and mouse models are linked to the severity of neurodegeneration. However, the contribution of Asrij to AD progression and whether reducing Asrij levels is sufficient to mitigate A{beta} pathology in vivo is unclear. MethodsTo explore the impact of Asrij on AD pathology, we deleted asrij in the APP/PS1 mouse model of AD and analyzed the effects on AD hallmarks. We used the Morris water maze and open field test to assess behavioral performance. Using immunohistochemistry and biochemical analyses, we evaluated A{beta} plaque load, neuronal and synaptic damage, and gliosis. Further, we utilized confocal microscopy imaging, flow cytometry and RNA sequencing analysis to comprehensively investigate changes in microglial responses to A{beta} pathology upon Asrij depletion. ResultsAsrij depletion ameliorates cognitive impairments, A{beta} deposition, neuronal and synaptic damage, and reactive astrogliosis in the AD mouse. Notably, Asrij-deficient microglia exhibit reduced plaque-associated proliferation and decreased phagocytic activation. Transcriptomic analyses of AD microglia reveal upregulation of energy metabolism pathways and downregulation of innate immunity and inflammatory pathways upon Asrij depletion. Mechanistically, loss of Asrij increases mitochondrial activity and impedes the acquisition of a pro-inflammatory disease-associated microglia (DAM) state. Reduced levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and decreased STAT3 and NF-{kappa}B activation indicate protective changes in AD microglia. Taken together, our results suggest that increased Asrij levels reported in AD, may suppress microglial metabolic activity and promote inflammatory microglial activation, thereby exacerbating AD pathology. ConclusionsIn summary, we show that Asrij depletion ameliorates A{beta} pathology, neuronal and synaptic damage, gliosis, and improves behavioral performance in APP/PS1 mice. This supports that Asrij exacerbates the AD pathology. Mechanistically, Asrij is critical for the development of DAM and promotes neuroinflammatory signaling activation in microglia, thus restricting neuroprotective microglial responses. Hence, reducing Asrij in this context may help retard AD. Our work positions Asrij as a critical molecular regulator that links microglial dysfunction to AD pathogenesis. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=199 SRC="FIGDIR/small/608066v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (42K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@119ae27org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@f8c3a1org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1f3b7f2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b17805_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Alarm barks of male vervet monkeys as displays of male quality

Research on the vocal behaviour of non-human primates is often motivated by a desire to understand the origins of semantic communication, which led to a partial separation of this research from ecological-evolutionary approaches. To bridge this gap, we returned to the textbook example of semantic communication in animals, the vervet monkey, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, alarm call system, and investigated whether male alarm barks fulfil a dual function of alarming and indicating male quality. Barks are loud calls, produced by adult males, in response to large carnivores. However, since barks occasionally occur in agonistic interactions, we investigated whether barks may also indicate male quality. We recorded natural barking events over 23 months, sampling individual male participation from 45 individuals in six free-ranging groups at the Mawana Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We hypothesized that barking frequency is under intra-sexual selection and predicted that barking frequency would increase with male rank and the degree of male-male competition. We found that the highest-ranking males were more likely to produce barks than lower-ranking males and that the number of daily barking events increased during the mating season. We advocate studying primate communication in its evolutionary context to achieve a comprehensive understanding of call "meaning".

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2021

Role of immigrants and muzzle contacts in the uptake of a novel food by wild vervet monkeys

The entry into and uptake of information in social groups is critical for behavioural adaptation by long-lived species in rapidly changing environments. We exposed five groups of wild vervet monkeys to a novel food to investigate innovation of processing and consuming it. We report that immigrant males innovated in two groups, and an infant innovated in one group. In two other groups, immigrant males imported the innovation from their previous groups. We compared uptake between groups with respect to the initial innovator to examine the extent to which dispersing males could introduce an innovation into groups. Uptake of the novel food was faster in groups where immigrant males ate first rather than the infant. Younger individuals were more likely overall, and faster, to subsequently acquire the novel food. We also investigated the role of muzzle contact behaviour in information seeking around the novel food. Muzzle contacts decreased in frequency over repeated exposures to the novel food. Muzzle contacts were initiated the most by naive individuals, high rankers and juveniles; and were targeted most towards knowledgeable individuals and high rankers, and the least towards infants. We highlight the potential importance of dispersers in rapidly exploiting novel resources among populations.

animal behavior and cognition↗