Genetic control of the immune response to ferritin in F1 hybrid mice

The immune response to the antigen horse spleen ferritin, has been investigated in ten inbred parental strains and seven different F1 hybrid strains of mice, using an antigen excess technique. The degree of dominance in an F1 hybrid system can be estimated by using the Fisher dominance index. The responses in F1 hybrid animals, obtained from crosses of high and low responder parents, varied from dominant to recessive but the overall mean dominance index for the ferritin immunogenetic system was found to be -0.0467 +/- 0.0083 (mean +/- s.e.), a value close to zero, which suggests a codominant mode of inheritance of IR-genes to ferritin and this is consistent with most published data in other F1 IR-gene systems.