Religionsethologie – die biologischen Wurzeln religiösen Verhaltens

Der Artikel skizziert die Grundlagen einer neuen Subdisziplin innerhalb der Religionswissenschaft, der Religionsethologie. Religionsethologie lässt sich letztlich auf Charles Darwin selbst zurückführen, der bereits in seinem Buch The expression of the emotions in man and animals (1872) belegen konnte, dass jede Form von Verhalten (also auch religiöses Verhalten) für das Überleben der Art genau so wichtig ist wie die Adaptation des Phänotypus. In den Geisteswissenschaften wurde der Darwinsche Ansatz sofort aufgegriffen und von bedeutenden Forschern wie Karl Meuli (1891–1968), Aby Warburg (1866–1929) und in jüngerer Zeit von Roy Rappaport (1926–1997), Marvin Harris (1927–2001) und anderen aufgegriffen und fruchtbar gemacht, indem sie einerseits religiöse Universalien herausarbeiten, andererseits aber auch die Grundzüge einer religiösen Evolution darstellen konnten. Religion ist demnach tief in der Biologie des Menschen verwurzelt und kann demzufolge auch unter biologischen Gesichtspunkten erforscht werden.This article describes a new sub-discipline: Ethology of Religion, which goes back to Charles Darwin himself who revealed in his book The expression of the emotions in man and animals (1872) that any form of behavior is just as important for the survival of the species as the adaptation of morphological structures in the course of their phylogenetic histories. In the humanities this approach was adapted by skilled scholars such as Karl Meuli (1891–1968), Aby Warburg (1866–1929), and currently by Roy Rappaport (1926–1997), Marvin Harris (1927–2001) and others. They were able to outline both human universals and the historical development (evolution) of religious behavior. According to the protagonists of this ethological approach and according to recent biology religion is deeply rooted in the biological human heritage. Inherited behavioral patterns did not only form the main patterns of ritual and iconography, but are most probably at least partly responsible for the origin of religion itself

Genetic strategy for identification or genes involved in citrus salt stress tolerance : Status of genome mapping program

Salt stress is one of the most obvious effects of high salinity on Citrus, which is classified among the most sensitive tree crops. Genetic and genomic analysis of tolerant and sensitive plants is a prerequisite for breeding programs and the selection of more adapted varieties to high salinity. The combined approach of genetic mapping and localization of candidate genes has been applied in plant genetics in the past decade with the objective of characterizing and cloning quantitative trait loci (QTLs). The segregation of the tolerancel sensitivity to salt character was initiated on the F2 population resulting from the crossing Cleopatra mandarin X Poncirus trifoliata. Citrus linkage map was derived from the segregation analysis of SSR markers from EST or BAC ends. From many polymorphic primers only few makers have Mendelian segregation. The skewed segregation can be due to abnormal meiosis at the intergeneric level. The excess of homozygous locus was observed only for the marker CiBE2626b. No difference was observed between frequency of alleles from Poncirus and alleles from mandarin in homozygous loci. Half ofF2 population (61 hybrids) has a percentage of homozygous loci lower than or equal to 20%. Other hybrids seem to have proportions of homozygous and heterozygous loci that follow a normal distribution although there is a slight shift of sorne homozygote individuals to represent the expected Gaussian curve (- 0.45 instead of 0.5). We have also studied the segregation and mapped several candidate genes putatively involved in salinity tolerance. We plan to confirm the role played by these genes by gene expression analysis from selected homozygous F2 genotypes under strong salt stress conditions. We will measure the effects of salt stress on physiological traits on the segregating population. (Texte intégral

Developmental and tissue-specific expression of the Q5k gene

Expression of the Q5k gene was examined by northern blot analysis and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the AKR mouse and various cell lines, each of the H-2k haplotype. Our results show that Q5k mRNA is present during the whole postimplantational development of the AKR embryo/fetus (gestation day 6 to 15). In the juvenile mouse (week 2 to 4) transcription of the Q5k gene persisted in all organs examined. In contrast, in the adult animal expression of the Q5k gene was limited to the thymus and uterus of the pregnant mouse. Upon malignant transformation, the amount of Q5k-specific mRNA increased dramatically in thymus and could also be observed in the spleen of thymoma bearing animals. Expression of the Q5k gene was also detectable in several transformed mouse cell lines. Mitogen stimulation or treatment with cytokines induced Q5k expression in primary spleen cell cultures. A possible explanation for the tissue-restricted expression in the adult AKR mouse is discussed