Evolution of major histocompatibility complex gene copy number

Cd1, Tuberculosis, and the Evolution of Major Histocompatibility Complex Molecules

Although the role of class I and class II MHC in adaptive immunity against microbial pathogens is clear, the participation of nonpolymorphic MHC molecules in host defense remains less well defined. Roles for murine class I MHC molecule Qa-2 and class Ib molecule H2-M3 have been suggested (1–3), and accumulating data have prompted speculation that CD1 family members may be important in immunity ...

The Evolution of Mating Preferences and Major Histocompatibility Complex Genes.

House mice prefer mates genetically dissimilar at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The highly polymorphic MHC genes control immunological self/nonself recognition; therefore, this mating preference may function to provide "good genes" for an individual's offspring. However, the evidence for MHC-dependent mating preferences is controversial, and its function remains unclear. Here we p...

The Evolution of Major Histocompatibility Complex in Birds

The implications of intergenic polymorphism for major histocompatibility complex evolution.

A systematic survey of six intergenic regions flanking the human HLA-B locus in eight haplotypes reveals the regions to be up to 20 times more polymorphic than the reported average degree of human neutral polymorphism. Furthermore, the extent of polymorphism is directly related to the proximity to the HLA-B locus. Apparently linkage to HLA-B locus alleles, which are under balancing selection, m...

Evolution of the major histocompatibility complex: molecular cloning of major histocompatibility complex class I from the amphibian Xenopus.

Class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) cDNA clones have been isolated from an expression library derived from mRNA of an MHC homozygous Xenopus laevis. The nucleotide and predicted amino acid sequences show definite similarity to MHC class I molecules of higher vertebrates. The immunoglobulin-like alpha-3 domain is more similar to the immunoglobulin-like domains of mammalian class II be...