Abstract
Although allelic diversity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has implications for adaptive immunity, mate choice, and social signalling, how diversity at the MHC influences the calibration of life history strategies remains largely uninvestigated. The current study investigated whether greater MHC heterozygosity was associated with markers of slower life history strategies in a sample of 789 North American undergraduates. Contrary to preregistered predictions and to previously published findings, MHC heterozygosity was not related to any of the psychological life history-relevant variables measured (including short- vs. long-term sexual strategy, temporal discounting, the Arizona life history battery, past and current health, disgust sensitivity, and Big Five personality traits). Further, no meaningful effects emerged when analysing women and men separately. Possible reasons for why the current results are inconsistent with previous work are discussed.
Highlights
Allelic diversity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has implications for adaptive immunity, mate choice, and social signalling, how diversity at the MHC influences the calibration of life history strategies remains largely uninvestigated
While the MHC is crucial for adaptive immunity and self versus non-self antigen recognition in vertebrates (e.g.,9), it has been implicated in mate choice, kin recognition, and other social signalling contexts in both human and non-human animals (see5,10)
This work is theoretically underpinned by the heterozygote advantage framework above, which logically implies that the better adaptive immunity conferred by MHC heterozygosity confers lower extrinsic mortality risk which, in turn, leads to the adoption of slower life history strategies
Summary
Allelic diversity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has implications for adaptive immunity, mate choice, and social signalling, how diversity at the MHC influences the calibration of life history strategies remains largely uninvestigated. The current study investigated whether greater MHC heterozygosity was associated with markers of slower life history strategies in a sample of 789 North American undergraduates. More recent research has found evidence for a link between greater MHC heterozygosity and slower life history strategies in h umans[14]. This work is theoretically underpinned by the heterozygote advantage framework above, which logically implies that the better adaptive immunity conferred by MHC heterozygosity confers lower extrinsic mortality risk which, in turn, leads to the adoption of slower life history strategies. Evidence for the heterozygote advantage across contexts remains equivocal
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