ALLOTYPY OF RABBIT SERUM PROTEINS

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Abstract
Six allotypes or families of allotypes (a, b, c, d, f, g) were studied for their immunochemical and genetic relationships. It was demonstrated by the use of a unispecific guinea pig antiserum that at least 5 of them share a large portion of their antigenic specificity, distinct from their allotypic specificity, uniform in all the individuals of the rabbit species and termed for this reason "isotypic specificity". Allelic relationships between the 6 genes which control these allotypes were indicated by the absence of certain kinds of groupings of the allotypes in the individuals of the sample population studied; dosage effects, the average concentration of certain allotypes (drawn from the penetration of the zones in gel tubes) being smaller in supposed heterozygotes than in supposed homozygotes; and the results of the analysis of the sera of a number of rabbits and of their parents. Eight of the different antigenic substances studied appear to be allotypic forms of what would have been considered to be a uniform protein antigen.