Meta-analysis of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class IIA reveals polymorphism and positive selection in many vertebrate species.

ABSTRACT: Pathogen-mediated selection and sexual selection are important drivers of evolution. Both processes are known to target genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), a gene family encoding cell-surface proteins that display pathogen peptides to the immune system. The MHC is also a model for understanding processes such as gene duplication and trans-species allele sharing. The class II MHC protein is a heterodimer whose peptide-binding groove is encoded by an MHC-IIA gene and an MHC-IIB gene. However, our literature review found that class II MHC papers on infectious disease or sexual selection included IIA data only 18% and 9% of the time, respectively. To assess whether greater emphasis on MHC-IIA is warranted, we analysed MHC-IIA sequence data from 50 species of vertebrates (fish,

SUBMITTER: Dearborn DC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9729452 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature