Allelic Variants in the Amino-acid Sequence of the α Chain of Rabbit Haemoglobin

Abstract

THE α chain of rabbit haemoglobin from a single rabbit does not always have a unique primary structure. Von Ehrenstein¹ reported at least six positions in the α chain where alternative amino-acids can occur (Fig. 1); he suggested this variance was caused by translational ambiguity, rather than polymorphic alleles or multiple non-allelic genes. Analyses of similar variance in the a chain of goat², horse (ref. 3 and personal communication by J. B. Clegg) and mouse haemoglobins⁴ and in the γ chain of human foetal haemoglobin⁵ indicate occurrence of non-allelic genes for these chains, but the variants in the β chain of adult human haemoglobin behave as true allelic genes⁶. We feel that the variants in the α chain of rabbits are linked to form two distinct linked sets which segregate in mendelian fashion, suggesting that the variance in rabbits is the result of polymorphic alleles of a single α chain gene.