Reconstructing an ancestral mammalian immune supercomplex from a marsupial major histocompatibility complex
View/ Open
Full Text
Date
2006-01-31Author
Belov, Katherine
Deakin, Janine E
Papenfuss, Anthony T
Baker, Michelle L
Melman, Sandra D
Siddle, Hannah V
Gouin, Nicolas
Goode, David L
Sargeant, Tobias J
Robinson, Mark D
Wakefield, Matthew J
Mahony, Shaun
Cross, Joseph G. R
Benos, Panayiotis V
Samollow, Paul B
Speed, Terence P
Graves, Jennifer A. Marshall
Miller, Robert D
Metadata
Show full item recordUsage
This item's downloads: 0 (view details)
Cited 123 times in Scopus (view citations)
Recommended Citation
Belov, Katherine; Deakin, Janine E; Papenfuss, Anthony T; Baker, Michelle L; Melman, Sandra D; Siddle, Hannah V; Gouin, Nicolas; Goode, David L; Sargeant, Tobias J; Robinson, Mark D; Wakefield, Matthew J; Mahony, Shaun; Cross, Joseph G. R; Benos, Panayiotis V; Samollow, Paul B; Speed, Terence P; Graves, Jennifer A. Marshall; Miller, Robert D (2006). Reconstructing an ancestral mammalian immune supercomplex from a marsupial major histocompatibility complex. PLoS Biology 4 (3), 317-328
Published Version
Abstract
The first sequenced marsupial genome promises to reveal unparalleled insights into mammalian evolution. We have used the Monodelphis domestica (gray short-tailed opossum) sequence to construct the first map of a marsupial major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The MHC is the most gene-dense region of the mammalian genome and is critical to immunity and reproductive success. The marsupial MHC bridges the phylogenetic gap between the complex MHC of eutherian mammals and the minimal essential MHC of birds. Here we show that the opossum MHC is gene dense and complex, as in humans, but shares more organizational features with non-mammals. The Class I genes have amplified within the Class II region, resulting in a unique Class I/II region. We present a model of the organization of the MHC in ancestral mammals and its elaboration during mammalian evolution. The opossum genome, together with other extant genomes, reveals the existence of an ancestral "immune supercomplex'' that contained genes of both types of natural killer receptors together with antigen processing genes and MHC genes.