2.5 Statistical analysis for MHC and microsatellites markers
between populations
For subsequent analyses, individuals were sorted according to their
population origin (western and eastern) that corresponded to structure
results (admixed individuals (q < 0.9) were excluded = 0
individuals). Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis rank sum tests were used to
investigate neutral genetic variation with F and MLH calculated from
microsatellite markers analysis, between the two E-mink populations and
host sex. Adaptive genetic diversity and variation between E-mink
populations and individual sex was also observed using the same approach
for motif richness for both MHC genes and divergence.
Permutational multivariate analyses of variance (PERMANOA) modelsadonis from the vegan package were constructed with 9,999
permutations with reported F, R2, and p- values, to determine whether
there were significant differences in genetic distance matrices for
neutral and adaptive markers between E-mink population, individual sex
and birth location. Pearson’s pairwise correlation tests between the
presence of MHC motifs, present in at least three individuals, were
conducted to potentially represent haplotype blocks for the two genes
investigated. The significance cutoff was set to p‐value < .05
for each test. Mantel tests were also conducted between each neutral,
MHC-I and MHC-II genetic distance matrices with 1,000 permutations to
investigate correlation between each marker.