Antibody responses to sheep erythrocytes for White Leghorn chickens differing in haplotypes of the major histocompatibility complex (B).

Abstract

Lines of White Leghorn chickens were developed by selection for high (HA) or low (LA) antibody response to sheep red blood cells (SRBC) and then backcrossed to provide individuals segregating for haplotypes B13 and B21 of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) within each selected line. Although antibody response to SRBC was consistently higher in background genome HA than LA, there was a significant interaction between background genome and MHC haplotypes. The interaction resulted from higher antibody response in B13/B21 individuals of line HA and in B21/B21 individuals of line LA. Thus, response to SRBC was dependent on particular haplotype combinations present at the MHC as well as the background genome in which they were expressed.