Evidence of balanced diversity at the chicken interleukin 4 receptor alpha chain locus
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The comparative analysis of genome sequences emerging for several avian species with the fully sequenced chicken genome enables the genome-wide investigation of selective processes in functionally important chicken genes. In particular, because of pathogenic challenges it is expected that genes involved in the chicken immune system are subject to particularly strong adaptive pressure. Signatures of selection detected by inter-species comparison may then be investigated at the population level in global chicken populations to highlight potentially relevant functional polymorphisms. RESULTS: Comparative evolutionary analysis of chicken (Gallus gallus) and zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) genes identified interleukin 4 receptor alpha-chain (IL-4Ralpha), a key cytokine receptor as a candidate with a significant excess of substitutions at nonsynonymous sites, suggestive of adaptive evolution. Resequencing and detailed population genetic analysis of this gene in diverse village chickens from Asia and Africa, commercial broilers, and in outgroup species red jungle fowl (JF), grey JF, Ceylon JF, green JF, grey francolin and bamboo partridge, suggested elevated and balanced diversity across all populations at this gene, acting to preserve different high-frequency alleles at two nonsynonymous sites. CONCLUSION: Haplotype networks indicate that red JF is the primary contributor of diversity at chicken IL-4Ralpha: the signature of variation observed here may be due to the effects of domestication, admixture and introgression, which produce high diversity. However, this gene is a key cytokine-binding receptor in the immune system, so balancing selection related to the host response to pathogens cannot be excluded.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".