Journal
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY
Volume 10, Issue 12, Pages 2765-2773Publisher
BLACKWELL PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-294X.2001.t01-1-01402.x
Keywords
class II; divergent allele advantage; MHC; Pema EB; Peromyscus; symmetric balancing selection
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We studied population polymorphism at a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II beta gene in the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus). We found that: (i) a single population of P. maniculatus has significantly higher levels of DNA and protein sequence diversity than worldwide samples from homologous genes in other taxa, including humans and mice; and (ii) the genealogy of allelic sequences in P. maniculatus deviates significantly from theoretical expectation under a model of symmetric balancing selection, in that alleles are relatively more divergent than expected. We suggest that the observation of high levels of pairwise allelic sequence divergence and deviation of the genealogy from theoretical expectation in P. maniculatus together provide support for a divergent allele advantage model for the maintenance of MHC polymorphism.
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