| genetic drift outweighs balancing selection in shaping post-bottleneck major histocompatibility complex variation in new zealand robins (petroicidae). | the chatham island black robin, petroica traversi, is a highly inbred, endangered passerine with extremely low levels of variation at hypervariable neutral dna markers. in this study we investigated variation in major histocompatibility complex (mhc) class ii genes in both the black robin and its nonendangered relative, the south island robin petroica australis australis. previous studies have shown that petroica have at least four expressed class ii b mhc genes. in this study, the sequences of ... | 2004 | 15548285 |
| gene duplication and gene conversion in class ii mhc genes of new zealand robins (petroicidae). | in contrast to mammals, the evolution of mhc genes in birds appears to be characterized by high rates of gene duplication and concerted evolution. to further our understanding of the evolution of passerine mhc genes, we have isolated class ii b sequences from two species of new zealand robins, the south island robin (petroica australis australis), and the endangered chatham island black robin (petroica traversi). using an rt-pcr based approach we isolated four transcribed class ii b mhc sequence ... | 2004 | 15138734 |