10.5061/DRYAD.5003G
Winternitz, Jamie
Institute of Vertebrate Biology
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
Abbate, Jessica
French National Institute for Agricultural Research
University of Bern
Huchard, Elise
French National Centre for Scientific Research
Havlíček, Jan
Charles University
Garamszegi, Laszlo Z.
Estación Biológica de Doñana
Data from: Patterns of MHC-dependent mate selection in humans and
non-human primates: a meta-analysis
Dryad
dataset
2016
Major histocompatibility complex
Homo Sapiens
primate
mating preference
HLA
2016-11-14T15:16:18Z
2016-11-14T15:16:18Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.13920
731116 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in vertebrates are
integral for effective adaptive immune response and are associated with
sexual selection. Evidence from a range of vertebrates supports MHC-based
preference for diverse and dissimilar mating partners, but evidence from
human mate choice studies has been disparate and controversial.
Methodologies and sampling peculiarities specific to human studies make it
difficult to know whether wide discrepancies in results among human
populations are real or artefact. To better understand what processes may
affect MHC-mediated mate choice across humans and nonhuman primates, we
performed phylogenetically controlled meta-analyses using 58 effect sizes
from 30 studies across seven primate species. Primates showed a general
trend favouring more MHC-diverse mates, which was statistically
significant for humans. In contrast, there was no tendency for
MHC-dissimilar mate choice, and for humans, we observed effect sizes
indicating selection of both MHC-dissimilar and MHC-similar mates.
Focusing on MHC-similar effect sizes only, we found evidence that
preference for MHC similarity was an artefact of population ethnic
heterogeneity in observational studies but not among experimental studies
with more control over sociocultural biases. This suggests that human
assortative mating biases may be responsible for some patterns of
MHC-based mate choice. Additionally, the overall effect sizes of primate
MHC-based mating preferences are relatively weak (Fisher's Z
correlation coefficient for dissimilarity Zr = 0.044, diversity Zr =
0.153), calling for careful sampling design in future studies. Overall,
our results indicate that preference for more MHC-diverse mates is
significant for humans and likely conserved across primates.
Primate treeFull phylogenetic tree from primate 10KTree used for
analyses.primate_tree.nexR code for analysisThis R file contains the
examples necessary to reproduce our analyses using the accompanying data
set. This code has been written by Jamie Winternitz, who can be contacted
at jcwinternitz-at-gmail-dot-com. The file consists of the nine following
sections: # 1. Loading and visualizing data # 2. DIC-based model selection
for random effects # 3. Heterogeneity estimation # 4. Univariate estimates
of moderators and contrasts # 5. Forest plots # 6. Tests for publication
bias # 7. Testing if negative MHC effect sizes (indicating similarity)
differ from zero # 8. Bivariate models for MHC~Neutral marker correlations
# 9. Power analysis for random-effects meta-analysis # 10. Plotting the
phylogenetic signal of MHC-associated mate
choiceWinternitz_et_al_Rcode_MHCDissimilarity.RHuman and non-human primate
datasetFull dataset used for analyses.human.primate.matechoice.csv
World-wide