GENETIC CONTROL OF SERUM TRANSFERRIN TYPE IN MICE

Abstract

Sera from mice of 13 inbred lines have been compared by starch gel electrophoresis. The CBA line differs from the other lines tested in the substitution of a more rapidly migrating [beta]-globulin component, a transferrin, for the slower-migrating transferrin component found in the other lines. Sera from 48 F1 progeny from reciprocal crosses between CBA and C57BL/6 contain both components in approximately equal amounts, but each is reduced in quantity relative to the parental lines. Tests of 501 F2 and backcross progeny show segregation of the parental and the F1 transferrin phenotypes with the frequencies expected from genetic control of the trait by a pair of codominant alleles. The locus controlling the trait has been called the transferrin locus (Trf), and the alleles, Trf1, in the CBA line, Trf2 in the other lines. Tests for linkage to the agouti and hemoglobin loci are negative. Autoradiography with Fe59 has shown that each major transferrin component has associated with it a more rapidly migrating minor transferrin component, which appears to be under control of the same locus.