電影中情侶由于基因結(jié)緣和分離的故事，在現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中似乎有些荒誕,。但中國和法國等國研究人員最近發(fā)現(xiàn),，人體內(nèi)的一個基因?qū)Σ糠秩祟惙N群的擇偶可能會產(chǎn)生一定影響。
法國國家科研中心9月12日發(fā)表新聞公報(bào)說,，這個名為“主要組織相容性復(fù)合體”（MHC）的基因,，在人體免疫功能方面發(fā)揮著重要作用。它能使人體及時發(fā)現(xiàn)進(jìn)入體內(nèi)的致病因子,，并啟動免疫系統(tǒng)進(jìn)行防御,。
科學(xué)家此前曾通過動物實(shí)驗(yàn)發(fā)現(xiàn)，MHC基因還會影響一些動物對配偶的選擇,，如老鼠,、鳥類在擇偶時都會趨向于選擇與自身MHC基因不同的異性，因?yàn)檫@樣做可以提高后代的基因質(zhì)量,，增強(qiáng)對病原體等的抵抗力,。
早先的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，MHC基因多樣性較高的動物個體,，對外界病原體的抵抗力較強(qiáng),，而且這些動物通過嗅覺或叫聲，就能分辨出MHC基因多樣性的高低,。但圍繞這種基因是否對人類擇偶也起到同樣作用,，科學(xué)界始終看法不一。
就此,，法國國家科研中心,、中國科學(xué)院上海生命科學(xué)研究院和英國牛津大學(xué)等機(jī)構(gòu)的研究人員合作，對尼日利亞和美國兩個不同種群人的基因組進(jìn)行了研究,。他們在尼日利亞的約魯巴人和美國猶他州的歐洲裔美國白人中各選取了一些夫婦,，分析他們MHC基因的異同。結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn),，由于約魯巴人大多為包辦婚姻,，并非自行擇偶，夫婦之間MHC基因的差異不是十分明顯,；而歐洲裔美國人擇偶比較自由,，夫妻之間MHC基因的差異就相對較大。
研究人員認(rèn)為,，這一結(jié)果表明MHC基因與部分人類種群的擇偶之間存在一定關(guān)聯(lián),，但他們還需要對更多人類種群進(jìn)行研究，以更好地了解MHC基因的特點(diǎn)和它所發(fā)揮的作用,。
上述研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在最新一期《公共科學(xué)圖書館·遺傳學(xué)》（PLoS Genetics）雜志上,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
PLoS Genetics,，doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000184，Rapha?lle Chaix,，Peter Donnelly
Is Mate Choice in Humans MHC-Dependent?
Rapha?lle Chaix1,2*, Chen Cao3, Peter Donnelly1,4
1 Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom,
2 Unité d'Eco-Anthropologie, CNRS UMR 5145, Musée de l'Homme, Paris, France,
3 CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai, China,
4 The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
In several species, including rodents and fish, it has been shown that the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) influences mating preferences and, in some cases, that this may be mediated by preferences based on body odour. In humans, the picture has been less clear. Several studies have reported a tendency for humans to prefer MHC-dissimilar mates, a sexual selection that would favour the production of MHC-heterozygous offspring, who would be more resistant to pathogens, but these results are unsupported by other studies. Here, we report analyses of genome-wide genotype data (from the HapMap II dataset) and HLA types in African and European American couples to test whether humans tend to choose MHC-dissimilar mates. In order to distinguish MHC-specific effects from genome-wide effects, the pattern of similarity in the MHC region is compared to the pattern in the rest of the genome. African spouses show no significant pattern of similarity/dissimilarity across the MHC region (relatedness coefficient, R = 0.015, p = 0.23), whereas across the genome, they are more similar than random pairs of individuals (genome-wide R = 0.00185, p<10−3). We discuss several explanations for these observations, including demographic effects. On the other hand, the sampled European American couples are significantly more MHC-dissimilar than random pairs of individuals (R = −0.043, p = 0.015), and this pattern of dissimilarity is extreme when compared to the rest of the genome, both globally (genome-wide R = −0.00016, p = 0.739) and when broken into windows having the same length and recombination rate as the MHC (only nine genomic regions exhibit a higher level of genetic dissimilarity between spouses than does the MHC). This study thus supports the hypothesis that the MHC influences mate choice in some human populations.
