| 研究実績の概要 |
In H28 three major outcomes were obtained: 1) Based on 167 samples collected from 27 different locations in H27, across altitudes 2-2129 m asl, a clear variation in toque macaque (TM) tail length was found. A statistically significant relationship was obtained between the tail-to-trunk index and elevation (LMM χ2= 15.45, p < 0.0001). The index decreased by 0.031 (SE + 0.007) with every 100 m of elevation gain. This variation did not strictly fall along putative sub-species lines, but rather a species level adaptation to altitude according to Allan’s Rule (AR). 2) In H28, additional samples were collected from new sites across the three putative sub-species’ distributions at varying altitudes. The trends remained clear, with the exception that absolute altitude alone may not be the sole determinant of this clear phenotypic variation. As AR predicts, temperature differences should be more important than absolute altitude. There are two habitat types in the high altitude regions of Sri Lanka; dry mountain forest and wet mountain forest. Even at similar altitudes, if the annual mean temperatures of these two habitat types are different, we predict a stronger affect then altitude alone, with average temperature variation expected to outweigh sub-species habitat differences. The temperature data is now being collected to test this prediction. 3) New primers have been made for mtDNA sequencing by taking the interference caused by nuclear mitochondrial DNA into consideration and are being used to assess PFL and GL sub-species differences from samples collected between H26-H28.
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