DOI: 10.5061/dryad.0p2ngf297
title: Data from: MHC class II supertypes affect survival and lifetime reproductive success in a migratory songbird

description: The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays a critical role in the
 immune response against pathogens. Its high polymorphism is thought to be
 mainly the consequence of host-pathogen co-evolution, but elucidating the
 mechanism(s) driving MHC evolution remains challenging for natural
 populations. We investigated the diversity of MHC class II genes in a wild
 population of pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca, and tested its
 associations with two key components of individual fitness: lifetime
 reproductive success and survival. Among 180 breeding adults in our study
 population, we found 182 unique MHC class II exon 2 alleles. The alleles
 showed a strong signal of positive selection and grouped into 9 functional
 supertypes based on physicochemical properties at the inferred
 antigen-binding sites. Three supertypes were found in &gt; 98% of the
 sampled individuals, indicating that they are nearly fixed in the
 population. We found no rare supertypes in the population, as all
 supertypes were present in &gt;70% of individuals. Three supertypes
 were related to different components of individual fitness: two were
 associated with lower offspring production over time, while the third was
 positively associated with survival. Overall, the substantial allelic and
 functional diversity and the relationship between specific supertypes and
 fitness is in accordance with the notion that balancing selection
 maintains MHC class II diversity in the study population, possibly with
 fluctuating selection as the underlying mechanism. The absence of rare
 supertypes in the population suggests that the balancing selection is not
 driven by rare-allele advantage.
description: # MHC class II supertypes affect survival and lifetime reproductive
 success in a migratory songbird
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0p2ngf297](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0p2ngf297) ## Description of the data and file structure **DATA USAGE** The data are supplied by the authors with the request that future users of the data are aware that the monitoring of the pied flycatcher population is an ongoing research program, so authors should be advised of the use of the data to avoid potential conflicts. During the analyses data were organized in two datasets: 1\. Analyses on lifetime reproductive success: **LRSdata.txt** 2\. Survival analyses: **CMRdata.txt** ### Files and variables #### File: LRSdata.txt **Description:**  Dataset used for analyses on life timer reproductive success ##### Variables * ring: individual identity * sex: male or female * habitat: oak or pine forest * yearBorn: year of born of the individual * LRSf: Total number of fledglings produced over an individual’s lifetime * NumSTypes: Total number of supertypes that the individual has * Num_MHCAlleles: Total number of alleles that the individual has * ST1 to ST9: Whether or not the individual has each of the nine supertypes found in the population * Al_001 to Al_182: Whether or not the individual has each of the 182 alleles found in the population #### File: CMRdata.txt **Description:** Dataset used for the survival analyses ##### Variables * ch: capture history * ring: individual identity * habitat: oak or pine forest * sex: male or female * yearBorn: year of born of the individual * ageRec: age at the first breeding attempt * NumSTypes: number of supertypes that the individual has * Num_MHCAlleles: number of alleles that the individual has * HL: homozygosity by loci based on 15 microsatellites. See Aparicio et al., 2006. *Molecular Ecology*, *15*(14), 4659–4665. * ST1 to ST9: Whether or not the individual has each of the nine supertypes found in the population * Al_001 to Al_182: Whether or not the individual has each of the 182 alleles found in the population ## Code/software Code used during analyses are given the in the supplementary file of the associated article