BACKGROUND: Gene duplication has led to a most remarkable adaptation involved in vertebrates' host-pathogen arms-race, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). However, MHC duplication history is as yet poorly understood in non-mammalian vertebrates, including birds. RESULTS: Here, we provide evidence for the evolution of two ancient avian MHC class IIB (MHCIIB) lineages by a duplication event prior to the radiation of all extant birds >100 million years ago, and document the role of concerted evolution in eroding the footprints of the avian MHCIIB duplication history. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that eroded footprints of gene duplication histories may mimic birth-death evolution and that in the avian MHC the presence of the two lineages may have been masked by elevated rates of concerted evolution in several taxa. Through the presence of a range of intermediate evolutionary stages along the homogenizing process of concerted evolution, the avian MHCIIB provides a remarkable illustration of the erosion of multigene family duplication history.

CNRS UMR 5175 Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology F 34293 Montpellier France

Department of Population Ecology Institute of Ecology Friedrich Schiller University Jena Dornburger Strasse 159 D 07743 Jena Germany

Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Kvetna 8 60365 Brno Czech Republic

Laboratory for Conservation Biology Department of Ecology and Evolution University of Lausanne Biophore Building CH 1015 Lausanne Switzerland

LECA Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine UMR CNRS 5553 Université Savoie Mont Blanc F 73376 Le Bourget du Lac France

MIVEGEC UMR 5290 CNRS IRD University of Montpellier Centre IRD F 34394 Montpellier France

Present address Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Kahlaische Strasse 10 D 07745 Jena Germany

Present address Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab Department of Biology Lund University Sölvegatan 37 SE 223 62 Lund Sweden

Front Immunol. 2023 Oct 27;14:1250824. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1250824. PubMed

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