Polymorphism and selection at exon 2 of the class II beta chain of the major histocompatibility complex in Forpus passerinus

Author

• Jaclyn M. Walbroehl

Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Hughes, Colin

Abstract

Female mate choice has been proposed to be a major force acting to maintain the polymorphism of the MHC, the most genetically variable genes known. I genotyped seventy-two individuals from a free-living population of the parrot, Forpus passerinus, in order to determine whether disassortative mating is the mode of selection acting at this locus. Both the high rate of nonsynonymous amino acid changes at the peptide binding regions of exon 2 of the class II beta gene and the unprecedented number of alleles found in this population provided strong evidence for the operation of selection. Despite this, a chi-square test revealed no evidence of disassortative mating for this sample, X2=0.569, n.s. I propose that natural selection, not sexual selection, must be operating at this locus to maintain the degree of variation found in 270 base-pairs of this gene.

Extent

53 p.

Comments

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2006.|Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2006.

Recommended Citation

Walbroehl, Jaclyn M., "Polymorphism and selection at exon 2 of the class II beta chain of the major histocompatibility complex in Forpus passerinus" (2006). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009. 1131.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_5/1131

Identifier

FADT13405

Format

pdf