Evolutionary history of an MHC gene in two leporid species: characterisation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mhc-DQA</Emphasis> in the European brown hare and comparison with the European rabbit |
| |
Authors: | Joëlle Goüy de Bellocq Franz Suchentrunk Stuart J E Baird Helmut Schaschl |
| |
Institution: | 1.Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology,University of Veterinary Medicine,Vienna,Austria;2.Department of Biology,University of Antwerp,Antwerp,Belgium;3.CIBIO, Centro de Investiga??o em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos,Universidade do Porto,Vair?o,Portugal |
| |
Abstract: | We surveyed the genetic diversity of the expressed major histocompatibility complex class II DQA locus in natural populations
of European brown hares, Lepus europaeus, from Austria and Belgium (267 individuals in total). Based on cDNA sequences, we designed hare-specific primers to amplify
the highly variable second exon of the DQA gene. Using cloning–sequencing methodology and capillary electrophoresis single-strand
conformation polymorphism, we found ten alleles of the DQA exon 2 locus across these two European regions, of which eight
are described for the first time. To search for signals of selection and recombination in the evolution of the DQA gene within
the leporids, we augmented our sample with orthologous DQA alleles from the European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus, in order to carry out a species level, species pairwise comparison. We found evidence of recombination in the history of
the DQA sequences in leporids with some recombinant alleles bridging the species divide. In both species, selection on peptide
binding site codons can be detected, though stronger for the rabbit. This result suggests that there may be a differential
selection pressure in the deeper evolutionary history of these two species due to differences in several demographic and ecological
traits likely subjecting them to differential selection by parasites. Finally, evolutionary relationships show a widespread
and statistically significant intermingling of alleles from the two species. The many macroparasites shared between hares
and rabbits may explain this pattern of trans-species polymorphism.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
The nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper have been submitted to Genbank and have been assigned the accession numbers
FJ225335–FJ225346. |
| |
Keywords: | Mhc-DQA Selection Recombination Trans-species polymorphism Lepus europaeus vs Oryctolagus cuniculus |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|