Songbirds show odour-based discrimination of similarity and diversity at the major histocompatibility complex

Grieves, Leanne A.; Gloor, Gregory B.; Bernards, Mark A.; MacDougall‐Shackleton, Elizabeth A.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.10.005

Cited by 36 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…However, the "divergent allele advantage" is expected to work in concert with the "heterozygote advantage" (Wakeland et al, 1990) and, when considering several loci, this estimate of MHC diversity is therefore unlikely to be strongly correlated with the range of antigens bound by all alleles together. A few studies have thus used the degree of divergence over all loci to estimate MHC diversity (Grieves, Gloor, Bernards, & MacDougall-Shackleton, 2019;Huchard, Baniel, Schliehe-Diecks, & Kappeler, 2013;Leclaire et al, 2019;Radwan et al, 2012). This measure is expected to estimate the range of antigens recognized by MHC molecules, regardless of whether a high range is due to the possession of many alleles that are somewhat divergent or to the possession of a few alleles that are very divergent.…”

Section: Chick Mhc-ii Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used Faith's diversity index to estimate MHC-II diversity as the degree of divergence of alleles across all loci (as in Grieves et al, 2019 andLeclaire et al, 2019). We first translated MHC-II DNA sequences into amino acid sequences, and considered DNA sequences as functionally identical if they had the same amino acids in the peptide-binding regions (PBRs; inferred from Leclaire et al, 2014).…”

Section: Chick Mhc-ii Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sex and hatching order modulate the association between MHC‐II diversity and fitness in early‐life stages of a wild seabird

et al. 2020

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Genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) play a pivotal role in parasite resistance, and their allelic diversity has been associated with fitness variations in several taxa. However, studies report inconsistencies in the direction of this association, with either positive, quadratic or no association being described. These discrepancies may arise because the fitness costs and benefits of MHC diversity differ among individuals depending on their exposure and immune responses to parasites. Here, we investigated in black‐legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) chicks whether associations between MHC class‐II diversity and fitness vary with sex and hatching order. MHC‐II diversity was positively associated with growth and tick clearance in female chicks, but not in male chicks. Our data also revealed a positive association between MHC‐II diversity and survival in second‐hatched female chicks (two eggs being the typical clutch size). These findings may result from condition‐dependent parasite infections differentially impacting sexes in relation to hatching order. We thus suggest that it may be important to account for individual heterogeneities in traits that potentially exert selective pressures on MHC diversity in order to properly predict MHC–fitness associations.

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Section: Chick Mhc-ii Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chick Mhc-ii Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex and hatching order modulate the association between MHC‐II diversity and fitness in early‐life stages of a wild seabird

et al. 2020

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“…A major source of body odour in birds is preen oil secreted by the uropygial (preen) gland (Campagna et al, 2012). The chemical composition of preen oil varies among species, populations and individuals; between sexes and age classes; and with genotype at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC; Grieves et al, 2019aGrieves et al, , 2019bGrieves, Gloor, et al, 2019;Whittaker et al, 2010). Furthermore, birds can use these odour cues to discriminate species, sexes, populations, kin and MHC genotype (Coffin et al, 2011;Grieves, Gloor, et al, 2019;Grieves et al, 2019a;Whittaker et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preen gland microbiota of songbirds differ across populations but not sexes

Grieves

Gloor

Kelly

et al. 2021

Journal of Animal Ecology

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1. Metabolites produced by symbiotic microbes can affect the odour of their hosts, providing olfactory cues of identity, sex or other salient features.2. In birds, preen oil is a major source of body odour that differs between populations and sexes. We hypothesized that population and sex differences in preen oil chemistry reflect underlying differences in preen gland microbiota, predicting that these microbes also differ among populations and between the sexes. We further predicted that pairwise similarity in the community composition of preen gland microbiota would covary with that of preen oil chemical composition, consistent with the fermentation hypothesis for chemical recognition.3. We analysed preen oil chemistry and preen gland bacterial communities of song sparrows Melospiza melodia. Birds were sampled at sites for which population and sex differences in preen oil have been reported, and at a third site that has been less studied. 4. Consistent with prior work in this system, we found population and sex differences in preen oil chemistry. By contrast, we found population differences but not sex differences in the community composition of preen gland microbes. Overall similarity in the community composition of preen gland microbiota did not significantly covary with that of preen oil chemistry. However, we identified a subset of six microbial genera that maximally correlated with preen oil composition.5. Although both preen gland microbiota and preen oil composition differ across populations, we did not observe an overall association between them that would implicate symbiotic microbes in mediating variation in olfactory cues associated with preen oil. Instead, certain subsets of microbes may be involved in mediating olfactory cues in birds, but experiments are required to test this.

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“…Por el contrario, la hipótesis del "genotipo compatible" predice que las hembras seleccionarían a los machos portadores de genes distintos a los de la hembra. En las aves, la selección de pareja en función del MHC se ha examinado en varias especies, mostrando resultados distintos (Leclaire et al 2017;Grieves et al 2019). Por ejemplo, apoyo a la primera hipótesis se ha observado en el faisán común (Phasianus colchicus) en donde las hembras eligieron a machos con el mejor genotipo, el cual se relacionó con una mayor longitud del espolón, un rasgo sexual en el cual las hembras se fijan con más detalle (von Schantz et al 1997).…”

Section: Diversidad Mhcunclassified