Quantitative Studies on the Regulation of Expression of Genes for Immunoglobulin Allotypes in Heterozygous Rabbits

Excerpt

Chemistry and Genetics

We have been interested in factors which influence the relative expression of allelic allotypes in heterozygous rabbits. Allelic genes a¹, a², and a³ at the a locus control structural features on some rabbit immunoglobulin heavy polypeptide chains which we recognize as allotypic antigenic determinants. Similarly, the b⁴, b⁵, and b⁶ alleles at the independently assorting b locus (Dray, 1964) are each associated with their antigenically distinct light polypeptide chains. [In this paper, allotypic specificities Aa1, Aa2, Aa3, Ab4, Ab5 and Ab6 as well as the genes Aa¹, Aa², Aa³, Ab⁴, Ab⁵ and Ab⁶ (Dray et al., 1962) are abbreviated by omitting the capital “A”.] Chemical studies of amino acid compositions and peptide maps of light and heavy chains from homozygous rabbits (Reisfeld, Dray, and Nisonoff, 1965; Small, Reisfeld, and Dray, 1965; Small, Reisfeld, and Dray, 1966; Inman, 1967) support the concept that the antigenic determinants which we...