Adaptive evolution of major histocompatibility complex class I immune genes and disease associations in coastal juvenile sea turtles.

ABSTRACT: Characterizing polymorphism at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes is key to understanding the vertebrate immune response to disease. Despite being globally afflicted by the infectious tumour disease fibropapillomatosis (FP), immunogenetic variation in sea turtles is minimally explored. We sequenced the α ₁ peptide-binding region of MHC class I genes (162 bp) from 268 juvenile green (Chelonia mydas) and 88 loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtles in Florida, USA. We recovered extensive variation (116 alleles) and trans-species polymorphism. Supertyping analysis uncovered three functional MHC supertypes corresponding to the three well-supported clades in the phylogeny. We found significant evidence of positive selection at seven amino acid sites

SUBMITTER: Martin KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8825991 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature