Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2012
Major histocompatibility complex class II compatibility, but not class I, predicts mate choice in a bird with highly developed olfaction
Strandh, Maria; Westerdahl, Helena; Pontarp, Mikael; Canbäck, Björn; Dubois, Marie-Pierre; Miquel, Christian; Taberlet, Pierre; Bonadonna, FrancescoAbstract
Mate choice for major histocompatibility complex (MHC) compatibility has been found in several taxa, although rarely in birds. MHC is a crucial component in adaptive immunity and by choosing an MHC-dissimilar partner, heterozygosity and potentially broad pathogen resistance is maximized in the offspring. The MHC genotype influences odour cues and preferences in mammals and fish and hence olfactory-based mate choice can occur. We tested whether blue petrels, Halobaena caerulea, choose partners based on MHC compatibility. This bird is long-lived, monogamous and can discriminate between individual odours using olfaction, which makes it exceptionally well suited for this analysis. We screened MHC class I and II B alleles in blue petrels using 454-pyrosequencing and quantified the phylogenetic, functional and allele-sharing similarity between individuals. Partners were functionally more dissimilar at the MHC class II B loci than expected from random mating (p = 0.033), whereas there was no such difference at the MHC class I loci. Phylogenetic and non-sequence-based MHC allele-sharing measures detected no MHC dissimilarity between partners for either MHC class I or II B. Our study provides evidence of mate choice for MHC compatibility in a bird with a high dependency on odour cues, suggesting that MHC odour-mediated mate choice occurs in birds.Keywords
major histocompatibility complex; MHC class I; MHC class II B; 454-pyrosequencing; genetic compatibilityPublished in
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences2012, volume: 279, number: 1746, pages: 4457-4463
Publisher: ROYAL SOC
Authors' information
Strandh, Maria
The National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
Westerdahl, Helena
Pontarp, Mikael
Canbäck, Björn
Dubois, Marie-Pierre
Miquel, Christian
Taberlet, Pierre
Bonadonna, Francesco
The National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
UKÄ Subject classification
Immunology
Evolutionary Biology
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Ecology
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.1562
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/50684