ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2012
Major histocompatibility complex class II compatibility, but not class I, predicts mate choice in a bird with highly developed olfaction.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 112 citations in OpenAlex.
- Major histocompatibility complex class IIB disassortative mate choice in a genetically monogamous seabird.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Female-mediated selective sperm activation may remodel major histocompatibility complex-based mate choice decisions in humans.Heredity · 2025Article
- The Importance of Olfaction for Mixed Paternity in Birds.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Article
- Relationship between genome-wide and MHC class I and II genetic diversity and complementarity in a nonhuman primate.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- A Review of Suggested Mechanisms of MHC Odor Signaling.Biology · 2022Review
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- The First Genome of the Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus) Provides a Valuable Resource for Conservation Genomics and Sheds Light on Adaptation to a Pelagic lifestyle.Genome biology and evolution · 2022Article
- House sparrows do not exhibit a preference for the scent of potential partners with different MHC-I diversity and genetic distances.PloS one · 2022Article
- Female-Based Patterns and Social Function in Avian Chemical Communication.Journal of chemical ecology · 2021Review
- Review
- MHC class I diversity predicts non-random mating in Chinese alligators (Alligator sinensis).Heredity · 2019Article
- Article
- Endless forms of sexual selection.PeerJ · 2019Article
- Specific MHC class I supertype associated with parasite infection and color morph in a wild lizard population.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
- Reduced population size does not affect the mating strategy of a vulnerable and endemic seabird.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2017Article
- Major histocompatibility complex genes partly explain early survival in house sparrows.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Extreme MHC class I diversity in the sedge warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus); selection patterns and allelic divergence suggest that different genes have different functions.BMC evolutionary biology · 2017Article
- Very high MHC Class IIB diversity without spatial differentiation in the mediterranean population of greater Flamingos.BMC evolutionary biology · 2017Article
- Structure and polymorphisms of the major histocompatibility complex in the Oriental stork, Ciconia boyciana.Scientific reports · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mate choice for major histocompatibility complex (MHC) compatibility has been found in several taxa, although rarely in birds. MHC is a crucial component in adaptive immunity and by choosing an MHC-dissimilar partner, heterozygosity and potentially broad pathogen resistance is maximized in the offspring. The MHC genotype influences odour cues and preferences in mammals and fish and hence olfactory-based mate choice can occur. We tested whether blue petrels, Halobaena caerulea, choose partners based on MHC compatibility. This bird is long-lived, monogamous and can discriminate between individual odours using olfaction, which makes it exceptionally well suited for this analysis. We screened MHC class I and II B alleles in blue petrels using 454-pyrosequencing and quantified the phylogenetic, functional and allele-sharing similarity between individuals. Partners were functionally more dissimilar at the MHC class II B loci than expected from random mating (p = 0.033), whereas there was no such difference at the MHC class I loci. Phylogenetic and non-sequence-based MHC allele-sharing measures detected no MHC dissimilarity between partners for either MHC class I or II B. Our study provides evidence of mate choice for MHC compatibility in a bird with a high dependency on odour cues, suggesting that MHC odour-mediated mate choice occurs in birds.
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