Figure 8

Phylogenetic analysis and selection on MHC Class II sequences. A) Phylogenetic relationships among passerine MHC Class II exon 2 and 3 sequences. Four sequences with open reading frames were found in the zebra finch genome. The remaining sequences are from GenBank. The root of the tree was placed at a divergent zebra finch lineage (TAGU 2) based on a larger analysis in which non-passerine sequences were included. TAGU 1 to 4 correspond to loci 1 to 4 in Table 1. B) Predicted amino acid sequences of the second exon of four apparently functional zebra finch MHC Class IIB genes. Stars represent sites showing evidence of selection in passerine birds. Note the correspondence between sites showing evidence of selection in passerines and the predicted peptide binding region in humans.