In Japan discovered the world’s second monkey with down syndrome
In the Japanese Kumamoto sanctuary living chimpanzees Kanako, the world’s second monkey with trisomy 22 chromosome, the monkey equivalent of down syndrome.
For the first time, trisomy of chromosome 22 (the presence of three homologous chromosomes instead of two) were identified in 1969 in chimpanzees. A sick animal has not lived a year, so born in 1992 Kanako first lived so long with chimpanzees deviation. She was always sickly, had heart problems, she had weak teeth. For seven years she was blind due to cataracts. Until the vision is lost, the chimp suffered from strabismus. All this is also characteristic of people with down syndrome. In 2014, it turned out that she had a defect messagekey partitions. This prompted scientists to the genetic study, which revealed trisomy.
Kanako lives separately from the other chimps and avoids aggression. During the month she was friends with another female who was nice to her from the beginning. So far, scientists can’t say how common trisomy in monkeys. People in every 600 births one child with down syndrome. But in Japan in captivity live only about 500 chimpanzees to draw conclusions based on such small populations is difficult.