Genetic heterozygosity is thought to enhance resistance of hosts to infectious diseases, but few tests of this idea exist. In particular, heterozygosity at the MHC, the highly polymorphic loci that control immunological recognition of pathogens, is suspected to confer a selective advantage by enhancing resistance to infectious diseases (the ''heterozygote advantage'' hypothesis). To test this hypothesis, we released mice into large population enclosures and challenged them with multiple strains of Salmonella and one of Listeria. We found that during Salmonella infections with three avirulent strains, MHC heterozygotes had greater survival and weight than homozygotes (unlike sham controls), and they were more likely to clear chronic Salmonella infection than homozygotes. In laboratory experiments, we found that MHC heterozygosity enhanced the clearance of multiple-strain Salmonella infections. Yet, contrary to what is widely assumed, the benefits of heterozygosity were due to resistance being dominant rather than overdominant, i.e., heterozygotes were more resistant than the average of parental homozygotes, but they were not more resistant than both. The fact that MHC heterozygotes were more resistant to infection and had higher fitness than homozygotes provides a functional explanation for MHC-disassortative mating preferences.

It is often suggested that heterozygosity at major histocompatibility complex (MHC) loci confers enhanced resistance to infectious diseases (heterozygote advantage, HA, hypothesis), and overdominant selection should contribute to the evolution of these highly polymorphic genes. The evidence for the HA hypothesis is mixed and mainly from laboratory studies on inbred congenic mice, leaving the importance of MHC heterozygosity for natural populations unclear. We tested the HA hypothesis by infecting mice, produced by crossbreeding congenic C57BL/10 with wild ones, with different strains of Salmonella, both in laboratory and in large population enclosures. In the laboratory, we found that MHC influenced resistance, despite interacting wild-derived background loci. Surprisingly, resistance was mostly recessive rather than dominant, unlike in most inbred mouse strains, and it was never overdominant. In the enclosures, heterozygotes did not show better resistance, survival, or reproductive success compared to homozygotes. On the contrary, infected heterozygous females produced significantly fewer pups than homozygotes. Our results show that MHC effects are not masked on an outbred genetic background, and that MHC heterozygosity provides no immunological benefits when resistance is recessive, and can actually reduce fitness. These findings challenge the HA hypothesis and emphasize the need for studies on wild, genetically diverse species.

It is often assumed that inbreeding reduces resistance to pathogens, yet there are few experimental tests of this idea in vertebrates, and no tests for the effects of moderate levels of inbreeding more commonly found in nature. We mated wild‐derived mice with siblings or first cousins and compared the resistance of their offspring to Salmonella infection with outbred controls under laboratory and seminatural conditions. In the laboratory, full‐sib inbreeding reduced resistance to Salmonella and survivorship, whereas first‐cousin inbreeding had no detectable effects. In competitive population enclosures, we found that first‐cousin inbreeding reduced male fitness by 57% in infected vs. only 34% in noninfected control populations. Our study provides experimental evidence that inbreeding reduces resistance and ability to survive pathogenic infection, and moreover, it shows that even moderate inbreeding can cause significant fitness declines under naturalistic conditions of social stress, and especially with exposure to infectious agents.

Amplicon melting is a closed-tube method for genotyping that does not require probes , real-time analysis , or allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. However , correct differentiation of homozygous mutant and wild-type samples by melting temperature (T m ) requires high-resolution melting and closely controlled reaction conditions. When three different DNA extraction methods were used to isolate DNA from whole blood , amplicon T m differences of 0.03 to 0.39°C attributable to the extractions were observed. To correct for solution chemistry differences between samples , complementary unlabeled oligonucleotides were included as internal temperature controls to shift and scale the temperature axis of derivative melting plots. This adjustment was applied to a duplex amplicon melting assay for the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase variants 1298A>C and 677C>T. Highand low-temperature controls bracketing the amplicon melting region decreased the T m SD within homozygous genotypes by 47 to 82%. The amplicon melting assay was 100% concordant to an adjacent hybridization probe (HybProbe) melting assay when temperature controls were included , whereas a 3% error rate was observed without temperature correction. In conclusion , internal temperature controls increase the accuracy of genotyping by high-resolution amplicon melting and should also improve results on lower resolution instruments. Amplicon melting analysis is a simple closed-tube genotyping method that uses a saturating DNA binding dye instead of fluorescently labeled primers or probes.1 Highresolution melting analysis can detect single base changes and other variations in single or multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR).2 Wild-type and homozygous mutant samples typically have sharp, symmetric melting transitions, whereas heterozygous samples have more complex, gradual melting curves. Homozygous sequence changes result in characteristic shifts in melting temperature (T m ). [2][3][4][5] In contrast, heterozygous samples are identified by melting peak shape and width and not by T m . Correct identification of sample genotype by amplicon melting requires standardization of reaction conditions to achieve reproducible, characteristic melting profiles. Reaction conditions can vary between lots of PCR reagents, including different buffers introduced by the DNA isolation method. Ionic strength, in particular, significantly affects T m . -10The current study introduces the use of one or more internal controls for temperature calibration between reactions. Complimentary, unlabeled oligonucleotides that do not interfere with the PCR were designed so that they melt outside the temperature region of PCR product melting. Any buffer differences that affect duplex T m s affects both the amplicon and the internal temperature controls, allowing subsequent temperature correction of melting profiles. As a genotyping target, the 1298AϾC and 677CϾT variants of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene were used. A single-color duplex amplicon melting assay (with a...

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is an autosomal dominant vascular disorder characterized by a unique pattern of telangiectasia and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). Mutations in one of two genes (ENG and ACVRL1) cause approximately 85% of cases. Genetic testing impacts clinical management because genotype/phenotype correlations exist, and early preventive screening for internal AVMs is recommended in affected individuals prior to the age at which a diagnosis can typically be made based on clinical criteria. We report 383 consecutive cases in which sequencing and large deletion/duplication analysis were performed simultaneously for endoglin (ENG) and activin-like receptor kinase 1 (ACVRL1). We report the first case of mosaicism in an affected individual and 61 novel mutations. We discuss the potential benefits of a diagnostic testing approach for HHT whereby ENG and ACVRL1 are analyzed simultaneously by sequencing and a method which detects large deletion/duplications, rather than by a sequential or reflex testing protocol. We report a case in which a deletion would probably have been missed if large deletion/duplication analysis was performed only if a suspected pathogenic mutation was not first identified by sequencing.