MHC diversity and female age underpin reproductive success in an Australian icon; the Tasmanian Devil

Tracey Russell; Simeon Lisovski; Mats Olsson; Gregory Brown; Rebecca Spindler; Amanda Lane; Tamara Keeley; Chris Hibbard; Carolyn J. Hogg; Frédéric Thomas; Katherine Belov; Beata Ujvari; Thomas Madsen

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-20934-9

MHC diversity and female age underpin reproductive success in an Australian icon; the Tasmanian Devil

Tracey Russell, Simeon Lisovski, Mats Olsson, Gregory Brown, Rebecca Spindler, Amanda Lane, Tamara Keeley, Chris Hibbard, Carolyn J. Hogg, Frédéric Thomas, Katherine Belov, Beata Ujvari, Thomas Madsen

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Abstract

Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), a highly contagious cancer, has decimated Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) numbers in the wild. To ensure its long-term survival, a captive breeding program was implemented but has not been as successful as envisaged at its launch in 2005. We therefore investigated the reproductive success of 65 captive devil pair combinations, of which 35 produced offspring (successful pairs) whereas the remaining 30 pairs, despite being observed mating, produced no offspring (unsuccessful pairs). The devils were screened at six MHC Class I-linked microsatellite loci. Our analyses revealed that younger females had a higher probability of being successful than older females. In the successful pairs we also observed a higher difference in total number of heterozygous loci, i.e. when one devil had a high total number of heterozygous loci, its partner had low numbers. Our results therefore suggest that devil reproductive success is subject to disruptive MHC selection, which to our knowledge has never been recorded in any vertebrate. In order to enhance the success of the captive breeding program the results from the present study show the importance of using young (2-year old) females as well as subjecting the devils to MHC genotyping.

Original language	English
Article number	4175
Number of pages	8
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	8
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-20934-9
Publication status	Published - 8 Mar 2018
Externally published	Yes

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Copyright the Author(s) 2018. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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10.1038/s41598-018-20934-9

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title = "MHC diversity and female age underpin reproductive success in an Australian icon; the Tasmanian Devil",

abstract = "Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), a highly contagious cancer, has decimated Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) numbers in the wild. To ensure its long-term survival, a captive breeding program was implemented but has not been as successful as envisaged at its launch in 2005. We therefore investigated the reproductive success of 65 captive devil pair combinations, of which 35 produced offspring (successful pairs) whereas the remaining 30 pairs, despite being observed mating, produced no offspring (unsuccessful pairs). The devils were screened at six MHC Class I-linked microsatellite loci. Our analyses revealed that younger females had a higher probability of being successful than older females. In the successful pairs we also observed a higher difference in total number of heterozygous loci, i.e. when one devil had a high total number of heterozygous loci, its partner had low numbers. Our results therefore suggest that devil reproductive success is subject to disruptive MHC selection, which to our knowledge has never been recorded in any vertebrate. In order to enhance the success of the captive breeding program the results from the present study show the importance of using young (2-year old) females as well as subjecting the devils to MHC genotyping.",

author = "Tracey Russell and Simeon Lisovski and Mats Olsson and Gregory Brown and Rebecca Spindler and Amanda Lane and Tamara Keeley and Chris Hibbard and Hogg, {Carolyn J.} and Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric Thomas and Katherine Belov and Beata Ujvari and Thomas Madsen",

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AU - Russell, Tracey

AU - Lisovski, Simeon

AU - Olsson, Mats

AU - Brown, Gregory

AU - Spindler, Rebecca

AU - Lane, Amanda

AU - Keeley, Tamara

AU - Hibbard, Chris

AU - Hogg, Carolyn J.

AU - Thomas, Frédéric

AU - Belov, Katherine

AU - Ujvari, Beata

AU - Madsen, Thomas

N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2018. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

PY - 2018/3/8

Y1 - 2018/3/8

N2 - Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), a highly contagious cancer, has decimated Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) numbers in the wild. To ensure its long-term survival, a captive breeding program was implemented but has not been as successful as envisaged at its launch in 2005. We therefore investigated the reproductive success of 65 captive devil pair combinations, of which 35 produced offspring (successful pairs) whereas the remaining 30 pairs, despite being observed mating, produced no offspring (unsuccessful pairs). The devils were screened at six MHC Class I-linked microsatellite loci. Our analyses revealed that younger females had a higher probability of being successful than older females. In the successful pairs we also observed a higher difference in total number of heterozygous loci, i.e. when one devil had a high total number of heterozygous loci, its partner had low numbers. Our results therefore suggest that devil reproductive success is subject to disruptive MHC selection, which to our knowledge has never been recorded in any vertebrate. In order to enhance the success of the captive breeding program the results from the present study show the importance of using young (2-year old) females as well as subjecting the devils to MHC genotyping.

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MHC diversity and female age underpin reproductive success in an Australian icon; the Tasmanian Devil

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