Bmc Evol Biol
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The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes are one of the most important genetic systems in the vertebrate immune response. The diversity of MHC genes may directly influence the survival of individuals against infectious disease. However, there has been no investigation of MHC diversity in the Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus). Here, we analyzed 270-bp nucleotide sequences of the entire exon 2 region of the MHC DQB gene by using 188 samples from the Japanese black bear (Ursus thibetanus japonicus) from 12 local populations. ⋯ The low level of observed heterozygosity suggests that genetic drift reduced DQB diversity in the Japanese black bear due to a bottleneck event at the population or species level. The decline of DQB diversity might have been accelerated by the loss of rare variants that have been maintained by negative frequency-dependent selection. Nevertheless, DQB diversity of the black bear appears to be relatively high compared with some other endangered mammalian species. This result suggests that the Japanese black bears may also retain more potential resistance against pathogens than other endangered mammalian species. To prevent further decline of potential resistance against pathogens, a conservation policy for the Japanese black bear should be designed to maintain MHC rare variants in each local population.
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Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins constitute an essential component of the vertebrate immune response, and are coded by the most polymorphic of the vertebrate genes. Here, we investigated sequence variation and evolution of MHC class I and class II DRB, DQA and DQB genes in the brown bear Ursus arctos to characterise the level of polymorphism, estimate the strength of positive selection acting on them, and assess the extent of gene orthology and trans-species polymorphism in Ursidae. ⋯ Historical positive selection has acted on MHC class I, class II DRB and DQB, but not on the DQA locus. The signal of historical positive selection on the DRB locus was particularly strong, which may be a general feature of caniforms. The presence of MHC class I pseudogenes may indicate faster gene turnover in this class through the birth-and-death process. South-north population structure at MHC loci probably reflects origin of the populations from separate glacial refugia.
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Phenotypic plasticity, i.e. the capacity to change the phenotype in response to changes in the environment without alteration of the genotype, is important for coping with unstable environments. In spite of the ample evidence that microorganisms are a major environmental component playing a significant role in eukaryotic organisms health and disease, there is not much information about the effect of microorganism-induced developmental phenotypic plasticity on adult animals' stress resistance and longevity. ⋯ Our study shows that development on pathogens has a hormetic effect on adult nematodes, as it results in increased resistance to different pathogens and to heat shock. Such developmental plasticity of C. elegans nematodes, which are self-fertilizing homozygous animals producing offspring with negligible genetic variation, could increase the probability of survival in changing environments.
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Proteins evolve at disparate rates, as a result of the action of different types and strengths of evolutionary forces. An open question in evolutionary biology is what factors are responsible for this variability. In general, proteins whose function has a great impact on organisms' fitness are expected to evolve under stronger selective pressures. In biosynthetic pathways, upstream genes usually evolve under higher levels of selective constraint than those acting at the downstream part, as a result of their higher hierarchical position. Similar observations have been made in transcriptional regulatory networks, whose upstream elements appear to be more essential and subject to selection. Less well understood is, however, how selective pressures distribute along signal transduction pathways. ⋯ These results indicate that the upstream/downstream position of proteins in the signal transduction network has, in general, no direct effect on their rates of evolution, suggesting that upstream and downstream genes are similarly important for the function of the network. This implies that natural selection differently distributes across signal transduction networks and across biosynthetic and transcriptional regulatory networks, which might reflect fundamental differences in their function and organization.
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Altruistic behavior is defined as helping others at a cost to oneself and a lowered fitness. The lower fitness implies that altruists should be selected against, which is in contradiction with their widespread presence is nature. Present models of selection for altruism (kin or multilevel) show that altruistic behaviors can have 'hidden' advantages if the 'common good' produced by altruists is restricted to some related or unrelated groups. These models are mostly deterministic, or assume a frequency dependent fitness. ⋯ The theory we present does not involve kin or multilevel selection, but is based on the existence of random drift in variable size populations. The model is a generalization of the original Fisher-Wright and Moran models where the carrying capacity depends on the number of altruists.