期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2011
卷号：108
期号：20
页码：8396-8401
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1019496108
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：In most mammals, the MHC class I molecules are polymorphic and determine the specificity of peptide presentation, whereas the transporter associated with antigen presentation (TAP) heterodimers are functionally monomorphic. In chickens, there are two classical class I genes but only one is expressed at a high level, which can result in strong MHC associations with resistance to particular infectious pathogens. However, the basis for having a single dominantly expressed class I molecule has been unclear. Here we report TAP1 and TAP2 sequences from 16 chicken lines, and show that both genes have high allelic polymorphism and moderate sequence diversity, with variation in positions expected for peptide binding. We analyze peptide translocation in two MHC haplotypes, showing that chicken TAPs specify translocation at three peptide positions, matching the peptide motif of the single dominantly expressed class I molecule. These results show that coevolution between class I and TAP genes can explain the presence of a single dominantly expressed class I molecule in common chicken MHC haplotypes. Moreover, such coevolution in the primordial MHC may have been responsible for the appearance of the antigen presentation pathways at the birth of the adaptive immune system.
