Dataset Information

Haplotype diversity generated by ancient recombination-like events in the MHC of Indian rhesus macaques.

ABSTRACT: The Mamu-A, Mamu-B, and Mamu-DRB genes of the rhesus macaque show several levels of complexity such as allelic heterogeneity (polymorphism), copy number variation, differential segregation of genes/alleles present on a haplotype (diversity) and transcription level differences. A combination of techniques was implemented to screen a large panel of pedigreed Indian rhesus macaques (1,384 individuals representing the offspring of 137 founding animals) for haplotype diversity in an efficient and inexpensive manner. This approach allowed the definition of 140 haplotypes that display a relatively low degree of region variation as reflected by the presence of only 17 A, 18 B and 22 DRB types, respectively, exhibiting a global linkage disequilibrium comparable to that in humans. This finding contrasts with the situation observed in rhesus macaques from other geographic origins and in cynomolgus monkeys from Indonesia. In these latter populations, nearly every haplotype appears to be characterised by a unique A, B and DRB region. In the Indian population, however, a reshuffling of existing segments generated "new" haplotypes. Since the recombination frequency within the core MHC of the Indian rhesus macaques is relatively low, the various haplotypes were most probably produced by recombination events that accumulated over a long evolutionary time span. This idea is in accord with the notion that Indian rhesus macaques experienced a severe reduction in population during the Pleistocene due to a bottleneck caused by geographic changes. Thus, recombination-like processes appear to be a way to expand a diminished genetic repertoire in an isolated and relatively small founder population.

SUBMITTER: Doxiadis GG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3710572 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Rhesus macaques are the most widely utilized nonhuman primate model in biomedical research. Previous efforts have validated fewer than 900 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in this species, which limits opportunities for genetic studies related to health and disease. Extensive information about SNPs and other genetic variation in rhesus macaques would facilitate valuable genetic analyses, as well as provide markers for genome-wide linkage analysis and the genetic management of captive breeding colonies.We used the available rhesus macaque draft genome sequence, new sequence data from unrelated individuals and existing published sequence data to create a genome-wide SNP resource for Indian-origin rhesus monkeys. The original reference animal and two additional Indian-origin individuals were resequenced to low coverage using SOLiD™ sequencing. We then used three strategies to validate SNPs: comparison of potential SNPs found in the same individual using two different sequencing chemistries, and comparison of potential SNPs in different individuals identified with either the same or different sequencing chemistries. Our approach validated approximately 3 million SNPs distributed across the genome. Preliminary analysis of SNP annotations suggests that a substantial number of these macaque SNPs may have functional effects. More than 700 non-synonymous SNPs were scored by Polyphen-2 as either possibly or probably damaging to protein function and these variants now constitute potential models for studying functional genetic variation relevant to human physiology and disease.Resequencing of a small number of animals identified greater than 3 million SNPs. This provides a significant new information resource for rhesus macaques, an important research animal. The data also suggests that overall genetic variation is high in this species. We identified many potentially damaging non-synonymous coding SNPs, providing new opportunities to identify rhesus models for human disease.

Dataset Information

Haplotype diversity generated by ancient recombination-like events in the MHC of Indian rhesus macaques.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets