scholarly journals Influence of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on human mating preferences

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anvita Kulshrestha

Several studies related to vertebrates have revealed that highly polymorphic genes within the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) may play a role in mate choice. Females gain direct or indirect fitness benefits by choosing between males with traits that are expressed from good genes, as females can obtain good genes for their offspring by mating with males whose genes are compatible or complementary to their own. There is a tendency for humans to prefer MHC-dissimilar mates, as it would favour the production of heterozygous offspring who would be more resistant to pathogens. This phenomenon has been reviewed on the similar concepts of the influence of MHC genes on human mating preferences, with potential but largely unknown in offspring fitness. The qualitative method can include surveying and interviewing people about their mate choices i.e. females select males with heterozygosity MHC genes over males with homozygous MHC genes. Chi-square test can be performed for statistical analysis. Mating with a MHC dissimilar individual can produce MHC heterozygous offspring that has strong immunocompetence against several parasite types. A heterozygous MHC gene combination has more capability to identify rapidly evolving parasites, which can escape recognition by immune systems containing common alleles.Plusieurs études reliées aux vertébrés ont révélé que les gènes extrêmement polymorphes au sein du complexe majeur d’histocompatibilité (MHC) peuvent jouer un rôle dans le choix d’un partenaire. Les femmes tirent des avantages directs ou indirects de valeur sélective en choisissant entre les hommes dont les traits sont exprimés avec les bons gènes, comme les femmes peuvent obtenir de bons gènes pour leur progéniture par accouplement avec des mâles dont les gènes sont compatibles ou complémentaires à leurs propres. Il y a une tendance pour les humains de préférer les camarades MHC-dissemblables, car ceci favoriserait la production de descendants hétérozygotes qui seraient plus résistants aux pathogènes. Ce phénomène était étudié sur les concepts similairesde l’influence des gènes du MHC sur les préférences d’accouplement humaines, avec un potentiel largement inconnu dans la valeur sélective de la progéniture. La méthode qualitative peut comprendre une enquête et l’interrogation des gens sur leur choix de partenaire, par ex. les femelles choisissent les mâles avec des gènes du CMH hétérozygote sur les hommes ayant des gènes du CMH homozygotes. Le test du chi carré peut être effectué pour faire l’analyse statistique. L’accouplement avec une personne avec un différent CMH peut produire la progéniture CMH hétérozygote qui a une forte immunocompétence contre plusieurs types de parasites. Une combinaison de gènes CMH hétérozygotes a plus de capacité d’identifier les parasites qui évoluent rapidement, qui peuvent échapper à la reconnaissance par le système immunitaire contenant des allèles communs.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Paweł Karpiński ◽  
Łukasz Łaczmański ◽  
Maria M. Sąsiadek

Current immunotherapies are effective only in a subset of patients, likely due to several factors including defects in tumor cell antigen presentation, decreased response to immune effectors, and molecular heterogeneity of cancers. Recent molecular classifications enable the categorization of many tumor types. However, deregulation of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) gene expression is poorly characterized in the context of molecular cancer subtypes. To suppress the confounding effect of immune infiltrates on expression patterns of immunoregulators, we identified and removed genes with strong correlation to estimated immune compartment levels in each tumor type. Next, we reanalyzed a total of 13 TCGA cancer types encompassing 5651 tumors and 485 normal adjacent tissues by performing unsupervised clustering of 14 MHC genes. Subsequently, resultant clusters were statistically compared in terms of expression of other immune-related genes. Three MHC expression clusters were discovered by unsupervised clustering. We identified concordantly decreased expression of MHC genes (MHC-low) in 26 out of 55 molecular subtypes. Consequently, our study underlines the urgent need for designing strategies to enhance tumor MHC expression that could improve immune cold tumor rejection by cytotoxic T lymphocytes.


1994 ◽  
Vol 179 (5) ◽  
pp. 1605-1611 ◽  
Author(s):  
J P Ting ◽  
A Painter ◽  
N J Zeleznik-Le ◽  
G MacDonald ◽  
T M Moore ◽  
...  

Interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) is the most potent inducer of class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes. This induction is uniquely mediated by three DNA elements in the promoter region of class II MHC genes. One of these DNA elements, Y, contains an inverted CCAAT box. Previously, we have screened a lambda gt11 library for Y-binding proteins and identified the YB-1 gene. Here we provide evidence that YB-1 can repress the IFN-gamma induction of class II MHC promoter as well as the Invariant chain (Ii) gene which also contains a Y element in its promoter. This was demonstrated by cotransfecting a YB-1 expression vector with promoter-reporter gene constructs. As an alternate approach, an efficient transient transfection system was developed which resulted in a > 70% transfection efficiency. Transfection of YB-1 by this procedure resulted in the near abrogation of IFN-gamma induced HLA-DR antigen and mRNA expression. These findings show the functional suppression of class II MHC gene induction by the YB-1 protein.


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