The genetic divergence of sublines as assessed by histocompatibility testing.

The degree of genetic divergence which has occurred between a number of inbred strains of mice and between two sublines of inbred rats was assessed by determining the fate of inter-subline skin grafts. Sublines which had been separated for 29 and 42 generations possessed no detectable incompatibility, while three combinations of sublines judged to have been maintained apart for from 123 to 129 generations showed slight degrees of histoincompatibility. One pair of sublines which had been separated for 119 generations demonstrated a marked degree of incompatibility, and an F(2) test suggested that mutations had occurred at four or five histocompatibility loci.