MHC heterozygosity may increase subordinate but not alpha male siring success in white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator)

Abstract

The genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are vital to vertebrate immunity and may influence mate choice in several species. The extent to which the MHC influences female mate choice in primates remains poorly understood, and studies of MHC-based mate choice in platyrrhines are especially rare. White-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator) reside in multimale-multifemale groups where alpha males sire most of the offspring. In this study, we investigated the roles of social dominance, relatedness, and MHC genotypes in determining which mating pairs produced offspring in wild white-faced capuchins in the Sector Santa Rosa (SSR), Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We find that males in this population do not differ significantly in MHC metrics based on their social status or siring success. Using mixed conditional logit models and generalized linear models, we find that alpha males that are distantly related to reproducing females are significantly more likely to sire offspring while MHC metrics do not predict the probability of siring offspring, or becoming an alpha male. However, we do find some evidence that subordinate males heterozygous at MHC loci sire significantly more offspring than homozygous subordinates. Further, one-sided binomial simulations reveal that offspring are more frequently heterozygous at MHC loci than expected given the gene pool. We conclude that in this population with limited genomic variation, females may preferentially mate with MHC-diverse subordinate males when related to the alpha, leading to increased probabilities of MHC-diverse offspring.