Distribution of rhesus antigens on red cell surfaces

Two pieces of evidence suggest different conclusions about the arrangement of the rhesus antigens on the surfaces of red cells. Indirect evidence suggests an ordered arrangement; electron-microscopic evidence has been interpreted visually as essentially random. Re-analysis of electron-microscopic material, using a form of computer spectral analysis, suggests that the visual interpretation was mistaken, and that the pattern is orderly. The material suggests that the maternally derived and paternally derived proteins are linked into couplets, and that the couplets may be regularly linked or packed, at least at shorter ranges. The material does not at present illuminate the question of longer range periodicity.