1932

Abstract

Abstract

To maintain sexual reproduction, recombination of good genes through selective mate choice must achieve a twofold genetic benefit in each generation. “Fragrant” immune genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) allow the choosy sex to complement her own set of alleles with a more or less diverse set of male alleles to reach an optimal number of different MHC alleles for the offspring. The optimal complement from the partner should include those MHC alleles that provide resistance against the current parasites, which could be revealed by the expression of costly secondary sexual characters. This maximizes resistance to ever-changing infectious diseases. Because the advantage of sex must be produced through recombination, assortative mating should combine currently advantageous MHC alleles. Preferring just MHC dissimilar mates is only a best-of-bad-job rule. MHC ligand peptides may be the natural “perfume” that reveals a potential partner's MHC genetics probably in all vertebrates. Perfumes may mimick MHC related signals.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.37.091305.110242
2006-12-01
2024-03-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.37.091305.110242
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.37.091305.110242
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error