Within-trio tests provide little support for post-copulatory selection on major histocompatibility complex haplotypes in a free-living population.

ABSTRACT: Sexual selection has been proposed as a force that could help maintain the diversity of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes in vertebrates. Potential selective mechanisms can be divided into pre-copulatory and post-copulatory, and in both cases, the evidence for occurrence is mixed, especially in natural populations. In this study, we used a large number of parent-offspring trios that were diplotyped for MHC class II genes in a wild population of Soay sheep (Ovis aries) to examine whether there was within-trio post-copulatory selection on MHC class II genes at both the haplotype and diplotype levels. We found there was transmission ratio distortion of one of the eight MHC class II haplotypes (E) which was transmitted less than expected by fathers, and transmission ratio dis

SUBMITTER: Huang W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7934901 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature