Social pairing and female mating fidelity predicted by restriction fragment length polymorphism similarity at the major histocompatibility complex in a songbird.

Abstract excerpt

Female birds often copulate outside the pair-bond to produce broods of mixed paternity, but despite much recent attention the adaptive significance of this behaviour remains elusive. Although several studies support the idea that extra-pair copulations (EPCs) allow females to obtain 'good genes' for their offspring, many others have found no relationship between female mating fidelity and traits likely to reflect...

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