Molecular analysis of the chicken major histocompatibility complex gene and gene products

New technologies are enabling researchers to conduct analysis of the molecular structure of the genes and gene products of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Two of these new technologies are the production of monoclonal antibodies by hybridomas and analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) by restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) on Southern blots. Monoclonal antibodies, because of their exquisite specificity, can be used to isolate purified MHC antigens for further study. The RFLP analysis can be used to examine differences in the MHC at the DNA level. This paper describes the two aforementioned technologies and their application to molecular analysis of the chicken MHC.