コモンマーモセットを用いた霊長類研究の動向(第29回大会 特別講演2)

抄録

Common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) have a small body-size (adults weigh 250-450g) and originate from the rainforests in Brazil. Common marmosets have been used extensively in Neuroscience and biomedical research because of their high fertility, biosafety, ease of handling, and low cost of breeding when compared to other non-human primates. However, the recent success in the generation of transgenic marmosets with germline transmission has made marmosets vastly more important as experimental nonhuman primate models for human diseases. In addition to the possibility of genetic modification, a large repertoire of behavior can make marmosets of value as experimental animals in Social Neuroscience. They show some unique features, which even macaques and chimpanzees never show. Typically in marmosets, just like "family" in human, one pair of a dominant female and male in each group monopolize the reproduction. The breeding female produces litters of 2-3 infants (birth weight approximately 30g) at roughly 6-month intervals. The energy and ecological demands of rearing 2 "heavy" infants has been suggested as the cause for the existence of a cooperative breeding system; not only mothers but also fathers, brothers, and sisters take care of infants. They often rely on vocalization to communicate each other. They often show food transfer behavior (food transfer from parents to infants). They have a high level of mutual gaze. Because of the small body-size, we can keep them as a "family" in a colony and produce various social situations in experimental rooms. I would like to introduce the potential of common marmosets as experimental animals in Social Neuroscience as well as biomedical studies.