An Asymmetric Model of Heterozygote Advantage at Major Histocompatibility Complex Genes: Degenerate Pathogen Recognition and Intersection Advantage From: Genetics | Date: March 1, 2008| Author: Spencer, Hamish G; Stoffels, Rick J | Copyright Genetics Society of America Mar 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC.Copyright information

ABSTRACT

We characterize the function of MHC molecules by the sets of pathogens that they recognize, which we call their "recognition sets." Two features of the MHC-pathogen interaction may be important to the theory of polymorphism construction at MHC loci: First, there may be a large degree of overlap, or degeneracy, among the recognition sets of MHC molecules. Second, when infected with a pathogen, an MHC genotype may have a higher fitness if that pathogen belongs to the overlapping...

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