Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I information is vital for understanding variance of immune responses in HIV vaccination and biomedical models. In this study, 9 Mamu-A and 13 Mamu-B alleles were identified from the cDNA products of 10 Chinese-origin rhesus macaques. Except for two alleles that had been reported by others, eight were novel and twelve extended the partial sequences t...

Patients with systemic autoimmune diseases usually produce high levels of antibodies to self-antigens (autoantigens). The repertoire of common autoantigens is remarkably limited, yet no readily understandable shared thread links these apparently diverse proteins. Using computer prediction algorithms, we have found that most nuclear systemic autoantigens are predicted to contain long regions of ...

The patterns of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) evolution involve duplications, deletions, and independent divergence of loci during episodes punctuated by natural selection. Major differences in MHC evolution among taxa have previously been attributed to variation in linkage patterns of class I and class II MHC genes. Here we characterize patterns of evolution in the MHC class Ia gene o...

Certain major-histocompatibility-complex (MHC) loci are highly polymorphic, and the mechanism of maintenance of this polymorphism remains controversial. Recent studies of the pattern of nucleotide substitution at MHC loci have produced strong evidence that this polymorphism is maintained mainly by positive Darwinian selection that operates on the antigen recognition site (ARS) of the MHC molecu...

Elucidating the adaptive genetic potential of wildlife populations to environmental selective pressures is fundamental for species conservation. Genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are highly polymorphic, and play a key role in the adaptive immune response against pathogens. MHC polymorphism has been linked to balancing selection or heterogeneous selection promoting local adapta...

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is an excellent molecular marker for the studies of evolutionary ecology and conservation genetics because it is a family of highly polymorphic genes that play a key role in vertebrate immune response. In this study, the functional genes of MHC Class II B (DAB) were isolated for the first time in a vulnerable species, the Chinese egret (Egrettaeulophot...

MHC class I molecules play a crucial role in the immune response to pathogens and vaccines and in self/non-self recognition. Therefore, characterization of MHC class I gene expression of Papio subspecies is a prerequisite for studies of immunology and transplantation in the baboon (papio hamadryas). To elucidate MHC class I expression and variation within Papio subspecies and to further investi...

Here we present the sequence of a 45 kb cosmid containing a previously characterized poly-morphic Mhc class II B gene (Agph-DAB1) from the red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). We compared it with a previously sequenced cosmid from this species, revealing two regions of 7.5 kb and 13.0 kb that averaged greater than 97% similarity to each another, indicating a very recent shared duplicatio...

MHC gene is a group of highly polymorphic genes. The structure, function and genetic characteristics of MHC gene have been revealed, in recent years, by more and more researchers. This study reviews the MHC in small mammals’ research, mainly on the domestic and foreign small mammals MHC gene polymorphism, and pays attention to the population genetic evolution and gene structure. The future rese...