Association between major histocompatibility complex class II DRB alleles and parasite load in the hairy‐footed gerbil, <i>Gerbillurus paeba</i>, in the southern Kalahari

Harf, Rainer; Sommer, Simone

doi:10.1111/j.1365-294x.2004.02402.x

Cited by 120 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…This in turn would reduce the potential that an immune response could be mounted against any given foreign antigen (Nowak et al, 1992). However, selection for intermediate numbers of alleles was not observed in hairy-footed gerbils (Gerbillus paeba; Harf and Sommer, 2005). Individuals with an intermediate number of alleles across duplicated loci were more intensively infected with intestinal helminth parasites than individuals with more or fewer alleles.…”

Section: Parasite-mediated Selection and Mhc Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The evolutionary ecology of the major histocompatibility complex

2005

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The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has become a paradigm for how selection can act to maintain adaptively important genetic diversity in natural populations. Here, we review the contribution of studies on the MHC in non-model species to our understanding of how selection affects MHC diversity, emphasising how ecological and ethological processes influence the tempo and mode of evolution at the MHC, and conversely, how variability at the MHC affects individual fitness, population dynamics and viability. We focus on three main areas: the types of information that have been used to detect the action of selection on MHC genes; the relative contributions of parasite-mediated and sexual selection on the maintenance of MHC diversity; and possible future lines of research that may help resolve some of the unanswered issues associated with MHC evolution.

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Section: Parasite-mediated Selection and Mhc Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The evolutionary ecology of the major histocompatibility complex

2005

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“…Yet, an important factor for how successful MHC molecules will bind and recognize peptides from pathogens is the binding properties Parasite-mediated selection on MHC H. Westerdahl et al 581 and the stability of each MHC molecule per se [14,55]. Several studies of natural populations have found that an optimal number of MHC alleles are most advantageous for avoiding infections [45,47,56,57]. In the great reed warbler, we found neither any association between MHC diversity (presented as the number of MHC alleles), nor support for an optimal number of MHC alleles in controlling the intensity of either GRW2 or GRW4 infections.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative disease resistance: to better understand parasite-mediated selection on major histocompatibility complex

et al. 2011

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We outline a descriptive framework of how candidate alleles of the immune system associate with infectious diseases in natural populations of animals. Three kinds of alleles can be separated when both prevalence of infection and infection intensity are measured-qualitative disease resistance, quantitative disease resistance and susceptibility alleles. Our descriptive framework demonstrates why alleles for quantitative resistance and susceptibility cannot be separated based on prevalence data alone, but are distinguishable on infection intensity. We then present a case study to evaluate a previous finding of a positive association between prevalence of a severe avian malaria infection (GRW2, Plasmodium ashfordi ) and a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I allele (B4b) in great reed warblers Acrocephalus arundinaceus. Using the same dataset, we find that individuals with allele B4b have lower GRW2 infection intensities than individuals without this allele. Therefore, allele B4b provides quantitative resistance rather than increasing susceptibility to infection. This implies that birds carrying B4b can mount an immune response that suppresses the acute-phase GRW2 infection, while birds without this allele cannot and may die. We argue that it is important to determine whether MHC alleles related to infections are advantageous (quantitative and qualitative resistance) or disadvantageous (susceptibility) to obtain a more complete picture of pathogen-mediated balancing selection.

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“…MHC heterozygosity has been shown to be associated with decreased infection rates in both laboratory and field studies (McClelland et al 2003;Froeschke and Sommer 2005), but several other studies have found no such association (Harf and Sommer 2005;Dionne et al 2009). Ilmonen et al (2007) found that wild-derived mice that were MHC heterozygotes did not show better resistance to Salmonella or better survival in semi-natural enclosures, even though earlier laboratory experiments documented a heterozygote advantage (Penn et al 2002).…”

Section: Effects Of the Mhc On Infection And Survival Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…DRB is typically the most variable one among MHC II genes (Robinson et al 2003) and it has been commonly used in MHC studies in wild populations (e.g. Harf and Sommer 2005;Froeschke and Sommer 2005;Kloch et al 2010). The variance at given MHC gene is likely to represents the variation at other MHC genes due to the linkeage disequlibrium between MHC genes (Marsh et al 2000).…”

Section: Primer Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

MHC influences infection with parasites and winter survival in the root vole Microtus oeconomus

et al. 2012

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Selective pressure from parasites is thought to maintain the polymorphism of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes. Although a number of studies have shown a relationship between the MHC and parasitic infections, the fitness consequences of such associations are less well documented. In the present paper, we characterised the variation in exon 2 of MHC class II DRB gene in the root vole and examined the effects of that gene on parasite prevalence and winter survival. We identified 18 unique exon 2 sequences, which translated into 10 unique amino acid sequences. Phylogenetic analysis revealed the presence of three distinct clusters, and allele distributions among these individuals suggested that the clusters correspond to three different loci. Although the rate of synonymous substitutions (d S ) exceeded the rate of nonsynonymous substitutions (d N ) across sequences, implying purifying selection, d N was significantly elevated at antigen-binding sites, suggesting that these sites could be under positive selection. Screening for parasites revealed a moderate prevalence of infection with gastrointestinal parasites (24 % infected), but a high infection rate for blood parasites (56 % infected). Infection with the blood parasite Babesia ssp. decreased survival almost twofold (25.7 vs. 13.9 %). Animals possessing the amino acid sequence AA*08 survived better than others (44.9 vs. 22 %), and they were infected with Babesia ssp. less often (13.9 vs 25.7 %). In contrast, individuals carrying allele AA*05 were infected more often (31.7 vs. 15.3 %). Heterozygosity at one of the putative loci was associated with a lower probability of infection with Babesia ssp., but at the other locus, the association was reversed. The unexpected latter result could be at least partly explained by the increased frequency of the susceptible allele AA*05 among heterozygotes. Overall, we demonstrate that infection with Babesia ssp. is a strong predictor of Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article

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Association between major histocompatibility complex class II DRB alleles and parasite load in the hairy‐footed gerbil, Gerbillurus paeba, in the southern Kalahari

Cited by 120 publications

References 53 publications

The evolutionary ecology of the major histocompatibility complex

The evolutionary ecology of the major histocompatibility complex

Quantitative disease resistance: to better understand parasite-mediated selection on major histocompatibility complex

MHC influences infection with parasites and winter survival in the root vole Microtus oeconomus

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