Short-term and long-term mate preference in men and women in an Iranian population.

Mate preference in short-term relationships and long-term ones may depend on many physical, psychological, and socio-cultural factors. In this study, 178 students (81 females) in sports and 153 engineering students (64 females) answered the systemizing quotient (SQ) and empathizing quotient (EQ) questionnaires and had their digit ratio measured. They rated their preferred mate on 12 black-line drawing body figures varying in body mass index (BMI) and waist to hip ratio (WHR) for short-term and long-term relationships. Men relative to women preferred lower WHR and BMI for mate selection for both short-term and long-term relationships. BMI and WHR preference in men is independent of each other, but has a negative correlation in women. For men, digit ratio was inversely associated with BMI (p = 0.039, B = - 0.154) preference in a short-term relationship, and EQ was inversely associated with WHR preference in a long-term relationship (p = 0.045, B = - 0.164). Furthermore, men and women in sports, compared to engineering students, preferred higher (p = 0.009, B = 0.201) and lower BMI (p = 0.034, B = - 0.182) for short-term relationships, respectively. Women were more consistent in their preferences for short-term and long-term relationships relative to men. Both biological factors and social/experiential factors contribute to mate preferences in men while in women, mostly social/experiential factors contribute to them

Teleost Growth Factor Independence (Gfi) Genes Differentially Regulate Successive Waves of Hematopoiesis

Growth Factor Independence (Gfi) transcription factors play essential roles in hematopoiesis, differentially activating and repressing transcriptional programs required for hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell (HSPC) development and lineage specification. In mammals, Gfi1a regulates hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), myeloid and lymphoid populations, while its paralog, Gfi1b, regulates HSC, megakaryocyte and erythroid development. In zebrafish, gfi1aa is essential for primitive hematopoiesis; however, little is known about the role of gfi1aa in definitive hematopoiesis or about additional gfi factors in zebrafish. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of an additional hematopoietic gfi factor, gfi1b. We show that gfi1aa and gfi1b are expressed in the primitive and definitive sites of hematopoiesis in zebrafish. Our functional analyses demonstrate that gfi1aa and gfi1b have distinct roles in regulating primitive and definitive hematopoietic progenitors, respectively. Loss of gfi1aa silences markers of early primitive progenitors, scl and gata1. Conversely, loss of gfi1b silences runx-1, c-myb, ikaros and cd41, indicating that gfi1b is required for definitive hematopoiesis. We determine the epistatic relationships between the gfi factors and key hematopoietic transcription factors, demonstrating that gfi1aa and gfi1b join lmo2, scl, runx-1 and c-myb as critical regulators of teleost HSPC. Our studies establish a comparative paradigm for the regulation of hematopoietic lineages by gfi transcription factors.Stem Cell and Regenerative Biolog

The role and regulation of friend of GATA-1 (FOG-1) during blood development in the zebrafish

The nuclear protein FOG-1 binds transcription factor GATA-1 to facilitate erythroid and megakaryocytic maturation. However, little is known about the function of FOG-1 during myeloid and lymphoid development or how FOG-1 expression is regulated in any tissue. We used in situ hybridization, gain- and loss-of-function studies in zebrafish to address these problems. Zebrafish FOG-1 is expressed in early hematopoietic cells, as well as heart, viscera, and paraspinal neurons, suggesting that it has multifaceted functions in organogenesis. We found that FOG-1 is dispensable for endoderm specification but is required for endoderm patterning affecting the expression of late-stage T-cell markers, independent of GATA-1. The suppression of FOG-1, in the presence of normal GATA-1 levels, induces severe anemia and thrombocytopenia and expands myeloid-progenitor cells, indicating that FOG-1 is required during erythroid/myeloid commitment. To functionally interrogate whether GATA-1 regulates FOG-1 in vivo, we used bioinformatics combined with transgenic assays. Thus, we identified 2 cis-regulatory elements that control the tissue-specific gene expression of FOG-1. One of these enhancers contains functional GATA-binding sites, indicating the potential for a regulatory loop in which GATA factors control the expression of their partner protein FOG-1