Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) MHC II-DRB locus. Rupicapra rupicapra

The major histocompatibility complex MHC II-DRB is one of the most complex and interesting region of vertebrate genomes. Our method is based on amplicon sequencing with short (i.e. Illumina MiSeq) and long (i.e. MinION nanopore) NGS technologies that produced a de novo DRB reference for an endangered non-model species. We used this sequence to align the short reads of several chamois individuals, obtaining their genotypes as well as characterizing new aspects of the locus. We suggest that our approach can extend and improve our ability to understand the structure and the level of MHC variation in non-model species.