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Genetic variation at MHC class II loci influences both olfactory signals and scent discrimination in ring-tailed lemurs

BACKGROUND: Diversity at the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is critical to health and fitness, such that MHC genotype may predict an individual’s quality or compatibility as a competitor, ally, or mate. Moreover, because MHC products can influence the components of bodily secretions, an indi...

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Autores principales: Grogan, Kathleen E., Harris, Rachel L., Boulet, Marylène, Drea, Christine M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6704550/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31438845
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12862-019-1486-0
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author Grogan, Kathleen E.
Harris, Rachel L.
Boulet, Marylène
Drea, Christine M.
author_facet Grogan, Kathleen E.
Harris, Rachel L.
Boulet, Marylène
Drea, Christine M.
author_sort Grogan, Kathleen E.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Diversity at the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is critical to health and fitness, such that MHC genotype may predict an individual’s quality or compatibility as a competitor, ally, or mate. Moreover, because MHC products can influence the components of bodily secretions, an individual’s body odors may signal its MHC composition and influence partner identification or mate choice. Here, we investigated MHC-based signaling and recipient sensitivity by testing for odor-gene covariance and behavioral discrimination of MHC diversity and pairwise dissimilarity in a strepsirrhine primate, the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta). METHODS: First, we coupled genotyping of the MHC class II gene, DRB, with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of genital gland secretions to investigate if functional genetic diversity is signaled by the chemical diversity of lemur scent secretions. We also assessed if the chemical similarity between individuals correlated with their MHC-DRB similarity. Next, we assessed if lemurs discriminated this chemically encoded, genetic information in opposite-sex conspecifics. RESULTS: We found that both sexes signaled overall MHC-DRB diversity and pairwise MHC-DRB similarity via genital secretions, but in a sex- and season-dependent manner. Additionally, the sexes discriminated absolute and relative MHC-DRB diversity in the genital odors of opposite-sex conspecifics, suggesting that lemur genital odors function to advertise genetic quality. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, genital odors of ring-tailed lemurs provide honest information about an individual’s absolute and relative MHC quality. Complementing evidence in humans and Old World monkeys, we suggest that reliance on scent signals to communicate MHC quality may be important across the primate lineage. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12862-019-1486-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-67045502019-08-22 Genetic variation at MHC class II loci influences both olfactory signals and scent discrimination in ring-tailed lemurs Grogan, Kathleen E. Harris, Rachel L. Boulet, Marylène Drea, Christine M. BMC Evol Biol Research Article BACKGROUND: Diversity at the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is critical to health and fitness, such that MHC genotype may predict an individual’s quality or compatibility as a competitor, ally, or mate. Moreover, because MHC products can influence the components of bodily secretions, an individual’s body odors may signal its MHC composition and influence partner identification or mate choice. Here, we investigated MHC-based signaling and recipient sensitivity by testing for odor-gene covariance and behavioral discrimination of MHC diversity and pairwise dissimilarity in a strepsirrhine primate, the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta). METHODS: First, we coupled genotyping of the MHC class II gene, DRB, with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of genital gland secretions to investigate if functional genetic diversity is signaled by the chemical diversity of lemur scent secretions. We also assessed if the chemical similarity between individuals correlated with their MHC-DRB similarity. Next, we assessed if lemurs discriminated this chemically encoded, genetic information in opposite-sex conspecifics. RESULTS: We found that both sexes signaled overall MHC-DRB diversity and pairwise MHC-DRB similarity via genital secretions, but in a sex- and season-dependent manner. Additionally, the sexes discriminated absolute and relative MHC-DRB diversity in the genital odors of opposite-sex conspecifics, suggesting that lemur genital odors function to advertise genetic quality. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, genital odors of ring-tailed lemurs provide honest information about an individual’s absolute and relative MHC quality. Complementing evidence in humans and Old World monkeys, we suggest that reliance on scent signals to communicate MHC quality may be important across the primate lineage. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12862-019-1486-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2019-08-22 /pmc/articles/PMC6704550/ /pubmed/31438845 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12862-019-1486-0 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Grogan, Kathleen E.
Harris, Rachel L.
Boulet, Marylène
Drea, Christine M.
Genetic variation at MHC class II loci influences both olfactory signals and scent discrimination in ring-tailed lemurs
title Genetic variation at MHC class II loci influences both olfactory signals and scent discrimination in ring-tailed lemurs
title_full Genetic variation at MHC class II loci influences both olfactory signals and scent discrimination in ring-tailed lemurs
title_fullStr Genetic variation at MHC class II loci influences both olfactory signals and scent discrimination in ring-tailed lemurs
title_full_unstemmed Genetic variation at MHC class II loci influences both olfactory signals and scent discrimination in ring-tailed lemurs
title_short Genetic variation at MHC class II loci influences both olfactory signals and scent discrimination in ring-tailed lemurs
title_sort genetic variation at mhc class ii loci influences both olfactory signals and scent discrimination in ring-tailed lemurs
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6704550/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31438845
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12862-019-1486-0
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