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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NCMolecular ecology

Relationships Among MHC Diversity, Parasites and Secondary Sexual Colouration.

  • Allegra E Love1,2,3
  • Jackie Lighten4
  • Cock van Oosterhout5
  • Alexander S T Papadopulos6
  • Stanley D King4
  • Ian G Paterson4
  • Lari C Delaire2,3
  • Lyndsey Baillie4
  • Ian R Bradbury7
  • Janay A Fox3,8
  • Felipe Perez-Jvostov2,3,9
  • Felipe Dargent3
5 more authors
  • Marilyn Scott8
  • Gregor F Fussmann3
  • Andrew P Hendry2,3
  • Paul Bentzen4
  • Kiyoko M Gotanda2,3,10
10 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
  2. 2Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  3. 3Department of Biology, McGill University, Monreal, Quebec, Canada.
  4. 4Marine Gene Probe Laboratory, Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
  5. 5School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, UK.
  6. 6School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK.
  7. 7Department of Fisheries and Oceans, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
  8. 8Department of Integrated Mathematical Oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, USA.
  9. 9Institute of Parasitology, Macdonald Campus of McGill University, Ste-Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, Canada.
  10. 10Department of Biological Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
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Abstract

Sexual selection via honest (costly) signals of fitness can generate patterns in immunogenetic diversity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). MHC diversity explains variation in immunocompetence-and therefore fitness-thus impacting the ability to generate honest signals. Differences in guppy (Poecilia reticulata) colour patterns can be driven by opposing selection pressures of predation and female mate choice, but the effect of parasitism has received less attention. By studying 21 wild guppy populations in Trinidad, we sought to quantify covariation among parasitic Gyrodactylus spp. infections, male sexual ornamentation (orange and black colouration) and genetic variation at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) at both individual and population levels. We found population level support for a correlation between MHC diversity and Gyrodactylus prevalence, including an overall association between MHC supertype composition and prevalence. At the individual level, supertype (functional) diversity again emerged as a more informative measure than allelic richness alone. Predation was associated with Gyrodactylus prevalence and orange, but not black, colouration. Notably, some of these relationships differed between the individual and population levels. Further, much of this variation was explained by processes acting at a broader geographic scale within river drainages, which comprise divergent guppy lineages. These findings suggest that evolutionary history and processes such as genetic drift and gene flow contribute substantially to these relationships, but that ecological variation (i.e., predation) interacts with these processes. Our findings indicate that multi-trait relationships between colour, immunogenetic diversity and infection are best examined within their broader evolutionary and ecological contexts.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{love2026relationships,
  title = {{Relationships Among MHC Diversity, Parasites and Secondary Sexual Colouration.}},
  author = {Allegra E Love and Jackie Lighten and Cock van Oosterhout and Alexander S T Papadopulos and Stanley D King and Ian G Paterson and Lari C Delaire and Lyndsey Baillie and Ian R Bradbury and Janay A Fox and Felipe Perez-Jvostov and Felipe Dargent and Marilyn Scott and Gregor F Fussmann and Andrew P Hendry and Paul Bentzen and Kiyoko M Gotanda},
  journal = {Molecular ecology},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.1111/mec.70619},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42968502},
  note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Relationships Among MHC Diversity, Parasites and Secondary Sexual Colouration.
AU  - Allegra E Love
AU  - Jackie Lighten
AU  - Cock van Oosterhout
AU  - Alexander S T Papadopulos
AU  - Stanley D King
AU  - Ian G Paterson
AU  - Lari C Delaire
AU  - Lyndsey Baillie
AU  - Ian R Bradbury
AU  - Janay A Fox
AU  - Felipe Perez-Jvostov
AU  - Felipe Dargent
AU  - Marilyn Scott
AU  - Gregor F Fussmann
AU  - Andrew P Hendry
AU  - Paul Bentzen
AU  - Kiyoko M Gotanda
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/01
JO  - Molecular ecology
DO  - 10.1111/mec.70619
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42968502
AB  - Sexual selection via honest (costly) signals of fitness can generate patterns in immunogenetic diversity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). MHC diversity explains variation in immunocompetence-and therefore fitness-thus impacting the ability to generate honest signals. Differences in guppy (Poecilia reticulata) colour patterns can be driven by opposing selection pressures of predation and female mate choice, but the effect of parasitism has received less attention. By studying 21 wild guppy populations in Trinidad, we sought to quantify covariation among parasitic Gyrodactylus spp. infections, male sexual ornamentation (orange and black colouration) and genetic variation at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) at both individual and population levels. We found population level support for a correlation between MHC diversity and Gyrodactylus prevalence, including an overall association between MHC supertype composition and prevalence. At the individual level, supertype (functional) diversity again emerged as a more informative measure than allelic richness alone. Predation was associated with Gyrodactylus prevalence and orange, but not black, colouration. Notably, some of these relationships differed between the individual and population levels. Further, much of this variation was explained by processes acting at a broader geographic scale within river drainages, which comprise divergent guppy lineages. These findings suggest that evolutionary history and processes such as genetic drift and gene flow contribute substantially to these relationships, but that ecological variation (i.e., predation) interacts with these processes. Our findings indicate that multi-trait relationships between colour, immunogenetic diversity and infection are best examined within their broader evolutionary and ecological contexts.
SN  - 0962-1083
SN  - 1365-294X
ER  -