Genetic diversity in the major histocompatibility complex in Scottish red deer

This study aims to assess genetic diversity in the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) in forest and open hill populations of Scottish red deer (Cervus elaphus). The proposed project consisted on genotyping the MHC class II DRB3 exon 2 a total of 48 individuals from two forest (Tarlogie, Inshriach) and two open hill (Strathconon, Abernethy) Scottish red deer populations; 12 individuals from each population (6 stags, 6 hinds). For each individual a total of 48 clones, resulting from the amplification and cloning of the MHC class II DRB3 exon 2, were to be sequenced. This experiment would result in a total of 2,304 MHC sequences (48 sequences per individual) that will allow establishing the minimum number of clones per individual that need to be screened to capture the complete MHC allelic diversity in an individual red deer