Data from: Immunogenetic heterogeneity in a widespread ungulate: the European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus)

Understanding how immune genetic variation is shaped by selective and
neutral processes in wild populations is of prime importance in both
evolutionary biology and epidemiology. The European roe deer (Capreolus
capreolus) has considerably expanded its distribution range these last
decades, notably by colonizing agricultural landscapes. This range shift
is likely to have led to bottlenecks and increased roe deer exposure to a
new range of pathogens that until recently predominantly infected humans
and domestic fauna. We therefore investigated the historical and
contemporary forces that have shaped variability in a panel of genes
involved in innate and acquired immunity in roe deer, including Mhc-Drb
and genes encoding cytokines or toll-like receptors (TLRs). Together, our
results suggest that genetic drift is the main contemporary evolutionary
force shaping immunogenetic variation within populations. However, in
contrast to the classical view, we found that some innate immune genes
involved in micropathogen recognition (e.g. Tlrs) continue to evolve
dynamically in roe deer in response to pathogen-mediated positive
selection. Most studied Tlrs (Tlr2, Tlr4 and Tlr5) had similarly high
levels of amino acid diversity in the three studied populations including
one recently established in southwestern France that showed a clear
signature of genetic bottleneck. Tlr2 implicated in the recognition of
Gram-positive bacteria in domestic ungulates, showed strong evidence of
balancing selection. The high immunogenetic variation revealed here
implies that roe deer are able to cope with a wide spectrum of pathogens
and to respond rapidly to emerging infectious diseases.