Serum Albumin Polymorphism in Quail and Chicken-quail Hybrids.

ERUM albumin polymorphism has been reported in such animals as pigs (KRISTJANSSON 1963), horses (STORMONT and SUZUKI 1963), cattle (ASHTON 1964; ASHTON and LAMPKIN 1965), chickens (MCINDOE 1962) and turkeys ( QUINTEROS, STEVENS, TORMONT and ASMUNDSON 1964). BECKMAN, CONTERIO and MAINARDI (1963) examined the serum protein patterns of avian species hybrids and found that in eight out of 11 interspecific crosses there was a difference between the parental species with respect to the major fast moving protein. In the hybrids, both parental protein components were present. At this laboratory, similar differences of serum protein fractions have been observed in Japanese quail and in chicken-quail hybrids. SMITHIES (1955) has shown that the major protein component of human serum in starch gel electrophoresis is albumin. The corresponding major component in chickens was reported to be albumin by its solubility characteristics (MCINDOE 1962). By analogy the major protein component in other species has been designated as albumin (KRISTJANSSON 1963; STORMONT and SUZUKI 1963; QUINTEROS et aZ., 1964). Thus, from migration rate and quantitative considerations the corresponding major protein fractions in quail serum have also been designated as albumin. This report describes the phenotypic differences observed in Japanese quail and in chicken-quail hybrids and attributes the differences to a genetically variable locus determining albumin fractions in quail.