Plasma protease inhibitor (PI) system in the laboratory opossum,Monodelphis domestica

Abstract

Protease inhibitor (PI) polymorphism was observed in the laboratory opossum, Monodelphis domestica, by either one-dimensional acid polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE; pH 4.6) or isoelectric focusing (pH 3.5-5.0) followed by immunoblotting with rabbit antiserum to human alpha 1-antitrypsin; but acid PAGE produced superior resolution of the PI proteins. Family studies demonstrated an inheritance of nine codominant autosomal alleles, PID, PIE, PIF, PIG, PIH, PII, PIJ, PIK, and PIM, and a population study revealed frequencies of 0.411, 0.010, 0.341, 0.034, 0.023, 0.071, 0.035, 0.020, and 0.055, respectively.

Angioarchitecture and morphology of temporomandibular joint ofMonodelphis domestica

“…According to VandeBerg and Robinson (), M. domestica has unique properties that make it particularly useful in fetal development studies, genetic factors related to high cholesterol, melanoma, for analyzing the repair of damaged spinal cords, and other research areas. Comparative studies have shown that the M. domestica immune system is more evolved as to organization when compared with rodents commonly used for research (Arthur et al, ; Gouin et al, ; Infante et al, ; Shearer et al, ; Stone et al, ;). The discovery that M. domestica has many genes involved in immunity changed the concept of a simple or primitive immune system of marsupials, showing features more closely resembling humans (Mikkelsen et al, ; VandeBerg and Robinson, ).…”