Previous studies found associations between autism-related phenotypes and both rearing and V1A arginine vasopressin receptor (AVPR1A) genotypes. We tested whether these exposures as well as their interaction were associated with autism-related phenotypes in 121 laboratory-housed chimpanzees. We used expert-derived weights to obtain autism scores from ratings on the 43-item Chimpanzee Personality Questionnaire; higher scores indicated more autistic-like traits. The first model included fixed effects for sex, age, and rearing, and a random effect that addressed the relatedness of subjects. The second model was the same except that it also included the rearing × AVPR1A genotype interaction as a fixed effect. Both models indicated that the phenotype was moderately heritable and that chimpanzees reared by their mothers had lower scores on the scale. The effect of genotype in both models indicated that chimpanzees with an indel deletion had higher scores on the scale, although the credible interval included zero. Moreover, the rearing × genotype interaction in the second model indicated that chimpanzees who possessed the non-deletion genotype and who were reared by their mother were at even greater risk. The credible interval for this effect did not include zero, but fit statistics indicated that the model without the interaction was marginally better, and the interaction was in the opposite direction than we expected based on previous work. These findings highlight the importance of rearing effects in the typical social development of our closet-living nonhuman relative.

中文翻译：

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早期社会养育、V1A 精氨酸加压素受体基因型和黑猩猩的自闭症特征

先前的研究发现自闭症相关表型与饲养和 V1A 精氨酸加压素受体 ( AVPR1A ) 基因型之间存在关联。我们测试了这些暴露以及它们的相互作用是否与 121 只实验室饲养的黑猩猩的自闭症相关表型有关。我们使用专家派生的权重从 43 项黑猩猩人格问卷的评分中获得自闭症分数；更高的分数表明更多的自闭症特征。第一个模型包括性别、年龄和教养的固定效应，以及解决受试者相关性的随机效应。第二个模型是相同的，只是它还包括饲养 × AVPR1A基因型相互作用作为固定效应。两种模型都表明该表型具有中等遗传性，并且由其母亲饲养的黑猩猩在量表上的得分较低。两种模型中基因型的影响表明，具有 indel 缺失的黑猩猩在量表上的得分较高，尽管可信区间包括零。此外，第二个模型中的饲养×基因型相互作用表明，拥有非缺失基因型且由母亲饲养的黑猩猩面临更大的风险。这种效应的可信区间不包括零，但拟合统计表明，没有交互作用的模型稍微好一点，并且交互作用的方向与我们基于先前工作的预期相反。