title: No evidence for the effect of MHC on male mating success in the brown bear.
abstract: Mate choice is thought to contribute to the maintenance of the spectacularly high polymorphism of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes, along with balancing selection from parasites, but the relative contribution of the former mechanism is debated. Here, we investigated the association between male MHC genotype and mating success in the brown bear. We analysed fragments of sequences coding for the peptide-binding region of the highly polymorphic MHC class I and class II DRB genes, while controlling for genome-wide effects using a panel of 18 microsatellite markers. Male mating success did not depend on the number of alleles shared with the female or amino-acid distance between potential mates at either locus. Furthermore, we found no indication of female mating preferences for MHC similarity being contingent on the number of alleles the females carried. Finally, we found no significant association between the number of MHC alleles a male carried and his mating success. Thus, our results provided no support for the role of mate choice in shaping MHC polymorphism in the brown bear.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, ul. Gronostajowa 7, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuduk
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, ul. Gronostajowa 7, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Wieslaw
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Babik
authors.affiliation: SPYGEN, Savoie Technolac - Bât. Koala 17, rue du Lac Saint-André - BP 274, 73375, Le Bourget-du-Lac Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bellemain
authors.affiliation: SPYGEN, Savoie Technolac - Bât. Koala 17, rue du Lac Saint-André - BP 274, 73375, Le Bourget-du-Lac Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Valentini
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NO-1432, Ås, Norway; Institute for Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, AT-1180, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zedrosser
authors.affiliation: CNRS, LECA, F-38000, Grenoble, France; Université Grenoble Alpes, LECA, F-38000, Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Taberlet
authors.affiliation: Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-901 83, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kindberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NO-1432, Ås, Norway; Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, NO-7485, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Jon E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Swenson
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, ul. Gronostajowa 7, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Jacek
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Radwan
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex; D008297:Male; D052586:Mating Preference, Animal; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D001503:Ursidae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology