Abstract
Three adaptive hypotheses have been proposed to explain the link between the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) genes, health measures and facial attractiveness: inbreeding avoidance, heterozygote advantage and frequency-dependent selection. This paper reports findings that support a new hypothesis relating HLA to health. We suggest a new method to quantify the level of heterozygosity. HLA heterozygosity did not significantly predict health measures in women, but allele frequency did. Women with more common HLA alleles reported fewer cold and flu bouts per year, fewer illnesses in the previous year and rated themselves healthier than women with rare alleles. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show a positive correlation between HLA allele frequency and general health measures. We propose that certain common HLA alleles confer resistance to prevalent pathogens. Nevertheless, neither HLA heterozygosity nor allele frequency significantly predicted how healthy or attractive men rated the female volunteers. Three non-mutually exclusive explanations are put forward to explain this finding.
Highlights
Evolutionary theory predicts that individuals should choose partners that will increase the number and quality of offspring produced, and that such choices will be based on phenotypic characteristics associated with the ability to supply partners and offspring with direct and indirect benefits
Our results show that women with more common human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class I alleles rated themselves healthier and reported fewer illnesses, the class I loci responsible for the beneficial effects differed between health measures
This is the first study to directly report a positive correlation between HLA allele frequency and general health measures
Summary
Evolutionary theory predicts that individuals should choose partners that will increase the number and quality of offspring produced, and that such choices will be based on phenotypic characteristics associated with the ability to supply partners and offspring with direct and indirect benefits. Direct benefits include the ability of the potential partner to provide resources, such as food, shelter, parental care and protection from parasite due to his own reduced parasite load [1]. These benefits have an immediate effect on reproductive success [1]. If a male cannot cope with the continuous onslaught of pathogens his sexual signals would deteriorate and the display would be somewhat less thrilling. These genes will be passed on to the offspring reducing their inherent resistance to disease
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