Selection on MHC class II supertypes in the New Zealand endemic Hochstetter's frog.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The New Zealand native frogs, family Leiopelmatidae, are among the most archaic in the world. Leiopelma hochstetteri (Hochstetter's frog) is a small, semi-aquatic frog with numerous, fragmented populations scattered across New Zealand's North Island. We characterized a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II B gene (DAB) in L. hochstetteri from a spleen transcriptome, and then compared its diversity to neutral microsatellite markers to assess the adaptive genetic diversity of five populations ("evolutionarily significant units", ESUs).

Results

L. hochstetteri possessed very high MHC diversity, with 74 DAB alleles characterized. Extremely high differentiation was observed at the DAB locus, with only two alleles shared between populations, a pattern that was

SUBMITTER: Lillie M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4415247 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature