We learned in Chapter 5 that the benefit of having and expressing multiple MHC class I and class II genes is that it increases the number and variety of pathogen-derived peptide antigens that can potentially be presented to T cells

If more is better, then why has natural selection not favored the evolution of more than three genes each for MHC class I and MHC class II?

What will be an ideal response?


Beyond a certain number of isotypes, the T-cell repertoire will be decreased, owing to the disproportionate increase in negative selection events as the number of different isotypes increases. Each additional isotype will decrease the number of T cells exported to the periphery, compromising the diversity of the T-cell population.

Health & Biomechanics

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