MHC-dependent mate preferences in humans

Abstract

One substantial benefit of sexual reproduction could be that it allows animals (including humans) to react rapidly to a continuously changing environmental selection pressure such as coevolving parasites. This counteraction would be most efficient if the females were able to provide their progeny with certain allele combinations for loci which may be crucial in the parasite-host arms race, for example the MHC (major histocompatibility complex). Here we show that the MHC influences both body odours and body odour preferences in humans, and that the women's preferences depend on their hormonal status. Female and male students were typed for their HLA-A, -B and -DR. Each male student wore a T-shirt for two consecutive nights. The next day, each female student was asked to rate the odours of six T-shirts. They scored male body odours as more pleasant when they differed from the men in their MHC than when they were more similar. This difference in odour assessment was reversed when the women rating the odours were taking oral contraceptives. Furthermore, the odours of MHC-dissimilar men remind the test women more often of their own actual or former mates than do the odours of MHC-similar men. This suggests that the MHC or linked genes influence human mate choice today.

Estrogens and relationship jealousy

“…The most intriguing result was that responses to partner infidelity were related to estradiol levels and primarily, although not entirely, during the time of rising and high fertility risk, a pattern that is in keeping with studies of female sexual behavior and mate preferences (Bellis and Baker 1990;Chavanne and Gallup 1998;Gangestad and Thornhill 1998;Penton-Voak and Perrett 2000;Penton-Voak et al 1999;Thornhill and Gangestad 1999;Wedekind et al 1995). It appears that during the time of rising and high fertility risk, high estradiol levels are associated with changes in relative degree of hurt/anger to different forms of partner infidelity (i.e., emotional or sexual), and to "a tendency toward greater distress over a partner's sexual infidelity than emotional infidelity.…”

“…Females who are not taking hormone-based birth control exhibit, as a group, systematic changes in cognition, sexual behavior, and mate preferences during the second week of the menstrual cycle, that is, during the time of rising and high fertility risk (Bellis and Baker 1990;Chavanne and Gallup 1998;Gangestad and Thornhill 1998;Kimura 1999;Penton-Voak and Perrett 2000;Penton-Voak et al 1999;Thornhill and Gangestad 1999;Wedekind et al 1995;Wilcox et al 2000). Bellis and Baker found that females who engage in an extra-pair copulation are most likely to do so during the time of high fertility risk and are less likely to use a contraceptive than during copulations with their long-term social partner.…”

“…Similarly, Penton-Voak and colleagues have found that females rate masculine faces, those with a more prominent jaw, as more attractive during the second week of the menstrual cycle than at other points in the cycle (Penton-V oak and Perrett 2000;Penton-Voak et al 1999). Scent, facial symmetry, and a masculine jaw bone may, in turn, be proximate cues to male genetic fitness, including immunocompetence (Folstad and Karter 1992;Shackelford and Larsen 1997;Wedekind et al 1995).…”

Genome-wide association analysis on five isolated populations identifies variants of the HLA-DOA gene associated with white wine liking

“…In fact numerous studies have linked MHC molecules to mate choice through scent in various species including humans. [41][42][43] In mice, non-canonical MHC class I molecules are specifically expressed in a particular section of the vomeronasal organ (VNO), 44 which are thought to modulate the response to MHC antigens. 45 Given that humans do not have a VNO, it is unclear how they could be able to distinguish different HLA types.…”

MHC‐dependent mate choice in humans: Why genomic patterns from the HapMap European American dataset support the hypothesis

“…This effect has been observed in several vertebrate species [2][3][4], but the question of MHC-dependent mate choice in humans, despite attracting considerable attention, has generated intense controversy (see [5] for a review). Studies of odour preferences support the hypothesis that humans are able to differentiate between the MHC composition of potential mates through olfactory cues, but disagree on whether 'smellers' prefer the odour of MHC dissimilar individuals [6][7][8], or of MHC intermediately related individuals [9]. Moreover, there is corroborating evidence suggesting that individuals with higher heterozygosity at MHC loci are found more facially attractive [10][11][12], and the degree of MHC relatedness between potential mates may also influence facial preferences, either positively [13] or negatively [11].…”