Journal of Heredity Advance Access published online on June 16, 2009
Journal of Heredity, doi:10.1093/jhered/esp031
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Highly Endangered African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus) Lack Variation at the Major Histocompatibility Complex
Division of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Graham Kerr Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK (Marsden, Mable, and Cleaveland); Centre for Integrated Genomic Medical Research, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (Kennedy); Institute of Zoology, Regent's Park, London, UK (Woodroffe); Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Tubney, Oxon, UK (Rasmussen); Painted Dog Research, Natural History Museum, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (Rasmussen); Botswana Predator Conservation Trust, Maun, Botswana (McNutt); Tanzanian Wildlife Research Institute, Arusha, Tanzania (Emmanuel); and Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, Edinburgh zoo, Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh, EH12 6TS, UK (Marsden and Thomas)
Address correspondence to Clare Marsden at the address above, or e-mail: c.marsden.1{at}research.gla.ac.uk.
The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a set of highly polymorphic genes involved in the immune response. Extensive research on the canid MHC has found moderate-to-high levels of diversity at the DLA-DRB1, DLA-DRA, DLA-DQA1, and DLA-DQB1 class II loci with frequent transspecific polymorphism among Canis species. In this study, we assessed MHC variation in the more distantly related and highly endangered African wild dog (Lycaon pictus). We screened 168 African wild dogs from Eastern and Southern Africa as well as 200 samples from the European captive population for variation at MHC class II loci. As for all other canids screened to date, we found a single allele at DLA-DRA, which was the same as that found in Canis species. In contrast, we found 17 DLA-DRB1 alleles, one DLA-DQA1 allele, and two DLA-DQB1 alleles, all of which were unique to African wild dogs. At DLA-DRB1, African wild dogs were found to have comparable numbers of alleles but less overall amino acid variation than other canids. However, the low numbers of alleles at DLA-DQA1 and DLA-DQB1 are surprising, given that in other canids, these loci are also highly variable. Overall, our data suggest that African wild dogs are genetically depauperate at the MHC relative to other canids. These data are indicative of a loss of genetic variation, possibly as a result of population bottlenecks and declines experienced by this species.
Key Words: adaptive variation • DLA • Lycaon pictus • MHC • population bottleneck
Corresponding Editor: Francis Galibert
Received November 22, 2008
Revised January 26, 2009
Accepted April 22, 2009