Trans-Species Polymorphism in Immune Genes: General Pattern or MHC-Restricted Phenomenon?
Joint Authors
Těšický, Martin
Vinkler, Michal
Source
Journal of Immunology Research
Issue
Vol. 2015, Issue 2015 (31 Dec. 2015), pp.1-10, 10 p.
Publisher
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Publication Date
2015-05-24
Country of Publication
Egypt
No. of Pages
10
Main Subjects
Abstract EN
Immunity exhibits extraordinarily high levels of variation.
Evolution of the immune system in response to host-pathogen interactions in particular ecological contexts appears to be frequently associated with diversifying selection increasing the genetic variability.
Many studies have documented that immunologically relevant polymorphism observed today may be tens of millions years old and may predate the emergence of present species.
This pattern can be explained by the concept of trans-species polymorphism (TSP) predicting the maintenance and sharing of favourable functionally important alleles of immune-related genes between species due to ongoing balancing selection.
Despite the generality of this concept explaining the long-lasting adaptive variation inherited from ancestors, current research in TSP has vastly focused only on major histocompatibility complex (MHC).
In this review we summarise the evidence available on TSP in human and animal immune genes to reveal that TSP is not a MHC-specific evolutionary pattern.
Further research should clearly pay more attention to the investigation of TSP in innate immune genes and especially pattern recognition receptors which are promising candidates for this type of evolution.
More effort should also be made to distinguish TSP from convergent evolution and adaptive introgression.
Identification of balanced TSP variants may represent an accurate approach in evolutionary medicine to recognise disease-resistance alleles.
American Psychological Association (APA)
Těšický, Martin& Vinkler, Michal. 2015. Trans-Species Polymorphism in Immune Genes: General Pattern or MHC-Restricted Phenomenon?. Journal of Immunology Research،Vol. 2015, no. 2015, pp.1-10.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-1068612
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Těšický, Martin& Vinkler, Michal. Trans-Species Polymorphism in Immune Genes: General Pattern or MHC-Restricted Phenomenon?. Journal of Immunology Research No. 2015 (2015), pp.1-10.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-1068612
American Medical Association (AMA)
Těšický, Martin& Vinkler, Michal. Trans-Species Polymorphism in Immune Genes: General Pattern or MHC-Restricted Phenomenon?. Journal of Immunology Research. 2015. Vol. 2015, no. 2015, pp.1-10.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-1068612
Data Type
Journal Articles
Language
English
Notes
Includes bibliographical references
Record ID
BIM-1068612