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The Mhc class II of the Black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) consists of low numbers of B and Y genes with variable diversity and expression

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Abstract

We found that the Black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) possess low numbers of Mhc class II B (BLB) and Y (YLB) genes with variable diversity and expression. We have therefore shown, for the first time, that another bird species (in this case, a wild lek-breeding galliform) shares several features of the simple Mhc of the domestic chicken (Gallus gallus). The Black grouse BLB genes showed the same level of polymorphism that has been reported in chicken, and we also found indications of balancing selection in the peptide-binding regions. The YLB genes were less variable than the BLB genes, also in accordance with earlier studies in chicken, although their functional significance still remains obscure. We hypothesize that the YLB genes could have been under purifying selection, just as the mammal Mhc-E gene cluster.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the Swedish Research Council (VR) to JH. We would like to thank Peter Halvarsson and Kerstin Persson for help and support with the lab work and Martin Carlsson for commenting on a draft of this paper. We also thank three anonymous referees for suggestions on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tanja Strand.

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Nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper are submitted to the GenBank database and have the accession numbers EF174539-EF174552.

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Strand, T., Westerdahl, H., Höglund, J. et al. The Mhc class II of the Black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) consists of low numbers of B and Y genes with variable diversity and expression. Immunogenetics 59, 725–734 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-007-0234-6

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