Hemoglobin polymorphism in inbred strains of rats (Rattus norvegicus).

Hemoglobin phenotypes A and B were determined by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of erythrocyte lysates from 29 inbred strains of rats. Fourteen strains have phenotype A and fifteen have phenotype B, which are characterized by five and six hemoglobin bands, respectively. Breeding studies showed that the phenotypes are codominant and that they segregate in a simple Mendelian fashion in the (A x B) F1 x A backcross. Sex and hemoglobin phenotype assort independently, and the hemoglobin phenotype is not linked to the major histocompatibility complex (RT1) and to two erythrocyte alloantigenic systems (RT2 and RT3).