Previous studies in animals and humans show that genes in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) influence individual odours and that females often prefer odour of MHC-dissimilar males, perhaps to increase offspring heterozygosity or reduce inbreeding. Women using oral hormonal contraceptives have been reported to have the opposite preference, raising the possibility that oral contraceptives alter female preference towards MHC similarity, with possible fertility costs. Here we test directly whether contraceptive pill use alters odour preferences using a longitudinal design in which women were tested before and after initiating pill use; a control group of non-users were tested with a comparable interval between test sessions. In contrast to some previous studies, there was no significant difference in ratings between odours of MHC-dissimilar and MHC-similar men among women during the follicular cycle phase. However, single women preferred odours of MHC-similar men, while women in relationships preferred odours of MHC-dissimilar men, a result consistent with studies in other species, suggesting that paired females may seek to improve offspring quality through extra-pair partnerships. Across tests, we found a significant preference shift towards MHC similarity associated with pill use, which was not evident in the control group. If odour plays a role in human mate choice, our results suggest that contraceptive pill use could disrupt disassortative mate preferences. (emphasis added)
Annoucements: October 2008 Archives
Remember the t-shirt article I told you about early in the course? Well, another paper about MHC variation and mate choice in humans just appeared in Proceedings of the Royal Society. Here's the abstract:
You'll want to download a copy of QTL Cartographer for the next problem. More specifically, you'll want to download a copy of WinQTLCart.1 Although there's a version available for Linux and Mac OS X, it requires you to use a command line interface that's a lot less convenient. If you'd really like to try the analyses with that interface, I'll do what I can to help, but I have to confess to not being very familiar with it. You may be on your own.
Oh, there's also a nice PDF manual for WinQTLCart available.
Continue reading A note about QTL Cartographer.
I just ran across a very nice review article on heritability in Nature Reviews Genetics. I've added a link to it in the detail page for today's lecture, and it will also show up in the readings list for the course. Of course, if you click the link on Nature Review Genetics, you'll get there directly.
Since the data Dave Carr provided is not yet published, I've set it up in such a way that access is restricted. To retrieve it, you'll have to be inside the UConn.Edu domain. If you're retrieving the data from a computer connected to the campus network, you shouldn't have any problems. If you need to download it when you're off campus, you'll have to log on through the VPN.
I apologize for taking so long to post these solutions. I have some excuses, but I won't share them.1 I'll just post the links.
Continue reading Solutions posted (finally).
I've added a link to a paper from Genetics in 1997 with the photos I described in class on Monday. You can find the link on the detail page for Monday's lecture.
You might also be interested to know that the number of loci estimated to influence height variation in humans is 54. See here for a brief discussion and a link to the papers describing the analyses. I'll mention association mapping briefly in another week or two.
You might also be interested to know that the number of loci estimated to influence height variation in humans is 54. See here for a brief discussion and a link to the papers describing the analyses. I'll mention association mapping briefly in another week or two.
