The course of malaria in mice: major histocompatibility complex (MHC) effects, but no general MHC heterozygote advantage in single-strain infections.
A general MHC-heterozygote advantage in parasite-infected organisms is often assumed, although there is little experimental evidence for this. We tested the response of MHC-congenic mice (F2 segregants) to malaria and found the course of infection to be significantly influenced by MHC haplotype, parasite strain, and host gender. However, the MHC heterozygotes did worse than expected from the average response of the homozygotes.
Wedekind
Claus
C
Zoological Institute, Division of Conservation Biology, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. claus.wedekind@unil.ch
Walker
Mirjam
M
Little
Tom J
TJ
D000818:Animals; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D001835:Body Weight; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D018450:Disease Progression; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics; D006579:Heterozygote; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex / Q000235:genetics*; D008288:Malaria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D018512:Parasitemia / Q000469:parasitology; D016788:Plasmodium chabaudi; D012737:Sex Factors