• Title/Summary/Keyword: Monkeys

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Ventral Striatal Connections of Unimodal and Multimodal Cortex of the Superior Temporal Sulcus in Macaque Monkeys(Macacca nemestrina)

  • Jung, Yong-Wook;Hong, Sung-Won
    • Animal cells and systems
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    • v.8 no.4
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    • pp.319-328
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    • 2004
  • Extrinsic connections between the cortex of the superior temporal sulcus (STS) and the ventral striatum in pigtail macaque monkeys (Macacca nemestrina) were studied by injection of retrograde tracers into the ventromedial caudate nucleus, the ventral and central shells of the nucleus accumbens (NA), the dorsal core of the NA, and the ventrolateral putamen. In the present study, we demonstrate that the projections from the unimodal (area TAa, IPa, TEa, and TEm) and the multimodal (area TPO and PGa) sensory association areas in the STS mainly terminate in the ventromedial caudate nucleus as well as in the ventral and central shells of the NA. However, there are only few projections to the dorsal core of the NA and the ventrolateral putamen from the sensory association cortex in the STS. Based on these differential neural connections between the subterritories of the ventral striatum and the sensory association areas, the ventromedial caudate nucleus and the shells of NA appear to be major integration sites for sensory input from the STS and functionally different from the dorsal core of NA and the ventrolateral putamen.

Organization of Projections from the Medial Temporal Cortical Areas to the Ventral Striatum in Macaque Monkeys

  • Jung, Yongwook;Hong, Sungwon
    • Animal cells and systems
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    • v.7 no.3
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    • pp.237-248
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    • 2003
  • Recent evidence on behaviors in macaque monkeys indicate that the medial temporal cortical areas such as the entorhinal cortex (EC), perirhinal cortex, and parahippocampal cortex (PHC) are importantly involved in limbic and sensory memory function. Neuroanatomical studies also have demonstrated that the medial temporal cortical areas are connected with the ventral striatum, although comparatively little is known about the precise topography of these connections. We investigated the topographic organization of connections between the medial temporal cortical areas and the ventral striatum by placing retrograde tracers into five different regions of the ventral striatum: the ventromedial caudate nucleus, ventral shell, central shell, dorsal core of the nucleus accumbens (NA), and ventrolateral putamen. We found that the shell of the NA was the main projection site from the medial temporal cortical areas. Within the shell of the NA, there were also differential connections: EC diffusely innervates shell of the NA, while the projections from the perirhinal cortex and PHC concentrate on the ventral shell of the NA. Taken together, it is possible that the ventral shell of the NA is the main integration site of the limbic and sensory memory coming from the EC, perirhinal cortex, and PHC.

Gain of a New Exon by a Lineage-Specific Alu Element-Integration Event in the BCS1L Gene during Primate Evolution

  • Park, Sang-Je;Kim, Young-Hyun;Lee, Sang-Rae;Choe, Se-Hee;Kim, Myung-Jin;Kim, Sun-Uk;Kim, Ji-Su;Sim, Bo-Woong;Song, Bong-Seok;Jeong, Kang-Jin;Jin, Yeung-Bae;Lee, Youngjeon;Park, Young-Ho;Park, Young Il;Huh, Jae-Won;Chang, Kyu-Tae
    • Molecules and Cells
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    • v.38 no.11
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    • pp.950-958
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    • 2015
  • BCS1L gene encodes mitochondrial protein and is a member of conserved AAA protein family. This gene is involved in the incorporation of Rieske FeS and Qcr10p into complex III of respiratory chain. In our previous study, AluYRa2-derived alternative transcript in rhesus monkey genome was identified. However, this transcript has not been reported in human genome. In present study, we conducted evolutionary analysis of AluYRa2-exonized transcript with various primate genomic DNAs and cDNAs from humans, rhesus monkeys, and crabeating monkeys. Remarkably, our results show that AluYRa2 element has only been integrated into genomes of Macaca species. This Macaca lineage-specific integration of AluYRa2 element led to exonization event in the first intron region of BCS1L gene by producing a conserved 3' splice site. Intriguingly, in rhesus and crabeating monkeys, more diverse transcript variants by alternative splicing (AS) events, including exon skipping and different 5' splice sites from humans, were identified. Alignment of amino acid sequences revealed that AluYRa2-exonized transcript has short N-terminal peptides. Therefore, AS events play a major role in the generation of various transcripts and proteins during primate evolution. In particular, lineage-specific integration of Alu elements and species-specific Alu-derived exonization events could be important sources of gene diversification in primates.