sympatric and allopatric divergence of mhc genes in threespine stickleback同域的mhc基因的分区散度threespine棘鱼.pdfVIP

Sympatric and Allopatric Divergence of MHC Genes in Threespine Stickleback 1 2 3 4 5 Blake Matthews *, Luke J. Harmon , Leithen M’Gonigle , Kerry B. Marchinko , Helmut Schaschl 1 Aquatic Ecology Department, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), Kastanienbaum, Switzerland, 2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, United States of America, 3 Zoology Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 4 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, 5 Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria Abstract Parasites can strongly affect the evolution of their hosts, but their effects on host diversification are less clear. In theory, contrasting parasite communities in different foraging habitats could generate divergent selection on hosts and promote ecological speciation. Immune systems are costly to maintain, adaptable, and an important component of individual fitness. As a result, immune system genes, such as those of the Major Histocompatability Complex (MHC), can change rapidly in response to parasite-mediated selection. In threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), as well as in other vertebrates, MHC genes have been linked with female mating preference, suggesting that divergent selection acting on MHC genes might influence speciation. Here, we examined genetic variation at MHC Class II loci of sticklebacks from two lakes with a limnetic and benthic species pair, and two lakes with a single species. In both lakes with species pairs, limnetics and benthics differed in their composition of MHC alleles, and limnetics