In 1924, Landsteiner and Miller distinguished eight different blood types in ten chickens by means of heteroagglutinating sera prepared by injecting chicken blood into rabbits. Since then, the existence of numerous individual serological differences -in chicken blood has been reported by Todd (1930), Kozelka (1933), Thomsen (1934Thomsen ( , 1936, Boyd and Alley (1940) and Hayashida (1942), though their inheritance mode had not been clarified. In accounting for the probable genetic relationships of the genes responsible for such antigenic differences, Wiener (1934) hypothesized the existence -of multiple alleles at some loci.Briles, McGibbon and Irwin (1950) found twelve cellular antigens in the chicken using reagents prepared by differential absorption of the isoimmune sera. They presented evidence that these antigens were determined by multiple allelic genes belonging to two autosomal loci, of which one consisted of nine alleles, the other of five -alleles. After that, Briles, Briles and Quisenberry (1950) and Briles (1951Briles ( , 1958 reported the existence of three additional loci, C, D and E. The serological and genetic relationship of these loci were described by Briles, McGibbon and Irwin (1959). Scheinberg (1956) found two linkage groups of genes for cellular antigens in the -chicken , and showed that one of them might belong to the A system of Briles, McGibbon and Irwin (1950). Recently, two additional blood group systems, L and N, were reported by Gilmour (1959).The present paper deals with the serological and genetic identification of ten cellular antigenic factors of the fourteen reported previously by the authors (1958 a, b), in the chicken. The evidence that these antigenic factors were determined by .genes at three loci will be presented. Materials and MethodsAll of the chickens used for these experiments were Single Comb White Leghorns, kept at the Experimental Farm of Hokkaido University. This flock has been closed since it was introduced from the Takikawa Livestock Breeding Station to this farm in 1957.
For many years it was widely held that the blood group genes were not connected with fitness (for instance, Dobzhansky 1951). However, there is some evidence that the stability of blood group polymorphism especially of the human blood groups must in all probability be due to the action of selective agencies (Allison 1955).In chicken blood groups, it appeared that the situation was also the same. Briles and McGibbon (1948) and Briles (1949) reported, for the first time, the heterozygosity of inbred lines at two blood group loci. Later, using 73 closed populations of chickens with the coefficient of inbreeding ranging from 0 to 86 per cent, Briles, Allen and Millen (1957) found that segregation at the B locus determining blood group occurred in at least 71 out of 73 lines studied. Gilmour (1959) followed the genetic changes in four highly inbred lines maintained by annual brother sister matings. Seven blood group loci were segregating in one of their lines by the fourteenth generation of full sib mating. By selection experiment, Shultz and Briles (1953) found that the heterozygotes at the A blood group locus were more frequent among females selected as breeders than in the original unselected population. These results all suggest that in chickens some blood groups may be associated with balance mechanisms. This paper presents evidence for the selective superiority of individuals heterozygous at the B locus; the evidence was obtained by following two closed chicken populations maintained by reciprocal recurrent selection. Materials and MethodsThree lines B, C and Aomori at the Takikawa Livestock Breeding Station and two lines B and C at the Omiya Livestock Breeding Station were used in the studies.All these lines were closed white Leghorn lines. The lines B and C now being maintained at the Takikawa Livestock Breeding Station were derived from the same flock. They had been maintained by mass selection for egg production as closed populations at the Omiya Livestock Breeding Station since 1944. In 1952, however, the selection method was changed to reciprocal recurrent selection. Annuall size of unselected population of each line was about 300.
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