TY - JOUR
T1 - Diversity of MHC class II DRB alleles in the Eurasian population of the least weasel, Mustela nivalis (Mustelidae
T2 - Mammalia)
AU - Nishita, Yoshinori
AU - Kosintsev, Pavel A.
AU - Haukisalmi, Voitto
AU - Väinölä, Risto
AU - Raichev, Evgeniy G.
AU - Murakami, Takahiro
AU - Abramov, Alexei V.
AU - Kaneko, Yayoi
AU - Masuda, Ryuichi
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Dr. Matthew H. Dick for providing invaluable comments and editing the manuscript. We also thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. We are grateful to T. Saito, T. Nagai, H. Wakabayashi (Hokkaido University), Y. Masuda (Shiretoko Museum), H. Yanagawa (Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine), F. Sekiyama (Iwate Prefectural Museum), G. Takahashi, and M. Hisasue for providing specimens. This study was supported in part by a Joint Research Project Grant from the Japan Society of the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR no.16-04-50004) and by a Grant-in-Aid for Basic Research (No. 26257404) from Japan Society of the Promotion of ScienceJSPS.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Linnean Society of London.
PY - 2017/5/1
Y1 - 2017/5/1
N2 - Mustela nivalis, the smallest member of the family Mustelidae, is widely distributed in the Holarctic region and shows high geographical variation. To further understand the molecular evolution of major histocompatibility complex (MHC), we sequenced part of MHC class II DRB gene exon 2, including codons encoding the antigen binding site (ABS), from 35 individuals from Finland, Bulgaria, Russia, and Japan. We detected 27 species-specific alleles (Muni-DRBs), some of which were broadly distributed and others geographically restricted. The ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitution rates for predicted ABS codons exceeded 1, though not statistically significant. In addition, the single break point recombination (SBP) and mixed-effects model evolution (MEME) analyses demonstrated a recombination site and positive selection sites that could be committed to maintain the diversity of Muni-DRBs. In a Bayesian phylogenetic tree, all Muni-DRBs grouped within a Mustelidae clade. The Muni-DRBs showed transspecies polymorphism in related Mustela species that could have appeared to be evolved under long-lasting balancing selection. However, the sister-group patterns suggested that Mustela itatsi and Mustela sibirica alleles are much more closely related to one another than either are to M. nivalis alleles. This result correlates with the large genetic distance separating M. nivalis from M. itatsi or M. sibirica, data for which we have previously reported.
AB - Mustela nivalis, the smallest member of the family Mustelidae, is widely distributed in the Holarctic region and shows high geographical variation. To further understand the molecular evolution of major histocompatibility complex (MHC), we sequenced part of MHC class II DRB gene exon 2, including codons encoding the antigen binding site (ABS), from 35 individuals from Finland, Bulgaria, Russia, and Japan. We detected 27 species-specific alleles (Muni-DRBs), some of which were broadly distributed and others geographically restricted. The ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitution rates for predicted ABS codons exceeded 1, though not statistically significant. In addition, the single break point recombination (SBP) and mixed-effects model evolution (MEME) analyses demonstrated a recombination site and positive selection sites that could be committed to maintain the diversity of Muni-DRBs. In a Bayesian phylogenetic tree, all Muni-DRBs grouped within a Mustelidae clade. The Muni-DRBs showed transspecies polymorphism in related Mustela species that could have appeared to be evolved under long-lasting balancing selection. However, the sister-group patterns suggested that Mustela itatsi and Mustela sibirica alleles are much more closely related to one another than either are to M. nivalis alleles. This result correlates with the large genetic distance separating M. nivalis from M. itatsi or M. sibirica, data for which we have previously reported.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85019098398&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85019098398&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/biolinnean/blw028
DO - 10.1093/biolinnean/blw028
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85019098398
VL - 121
SP - 28
EP - 37
JO - Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
JF - Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
SN - 0024-4066
IS - 1
ER -