Landscape-scale variation in an anthropogenic factor shapes immune gene variation within a wild population

Gonzalez-Quevedo, Catalina, Davies, Richard G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0145-0818, Phillips, Karl P., Spurgin, Lewis G. and Richardson, David S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7226-9074 (2016) Landscape-scale variation in an anthropogenic factor shapes immune gene variation within a wild population. Molecular Ecology, 25 (17). 4234–4246. ISSN 0962-1083

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Abstract

Understanding the spatial scale at which selection acts upon adaptive genetic variation in natural populations is fundamental to our understanding of evolutionary ecology, and has important ramifications for conservation. The environmental factors to which individuals of a population are exposed can vary at fine spatial scales, potentially generating localized patterns of adaptation. Here, we compared patterns of neutral and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) variation within an island population of Berthelot's pipit (Anthus berthelotii) to assess whether landscape-level differences in pathogen-mediated selection generate fine-scale spatial structuring in these immune genes. Specifically, we tested for spatial associations between the distribution of avian malaria, and the factors previously shown to influence that distribution, and MHC variation within resident individuals. Although we found no overall genetic structure across the population for either neutral or MHC loci, we did find localized associations between environmental factors and MHC variation. One MHC class I allele (ANBE48) was directly associated with malaria infection risk, while the presence of the ANBE48 and ANBE38 alleles within individuals correlated (positively and negatively, respectively) with distance to the nearest poultry farm, an anthropogenic factor previously shown to be an important determinant of disease distribution in the study population. Our findings highlight the importance of considering small spatial scales when studying the patterns and processes involved in evolution at adaptive loci.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2016 The Authors. Molecular Ecology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	malaria,pcnm,berthelot’s pipit,major histocompatibility complex,mhc,sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	23 Sep 2016 23:59
Last Modified:	12 May 2023 00:13
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/59759
DOI:	10.1111/mec.13759

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