Expression of GM1 and GD1a in liver of wild mice

Wild mice are divided into two groups with different ganglioside compositions in the liver. Most Japanese and a few Chinese wild mice have GM2(NeuGc) as a major ganglioside, whereas all wild mice caught at other places distributed all over the world other than Japan and China express GM1(NeuGc) and GD1a(NeuGc) in addition to GM2(NeuGC). We recently reported that inbred strains of laboratory mice were also grouped into the same two types based on the ganglioside composition in the liver, and that the expression of GM1(NeuGc) and GD1a(NeuGc) was regulated by a gene located at the left outside the H-2 complex on chromosome 17 (Hashimoto, Y., Suzuki, A., Yamakawa, T., Miyashita, N., & Moriwaki, K. (1983) J. Biochem. 94, 2049-2054). The present study suggests that oriental wild mice would be a donor of a defective gene for expression of GM1(NeuGc) and GD1a(NeuGc) in mice of laboratory stocks which are commonly used for biochemical and immunological studies, such as C57BL/6, C57BL/10, BALB/c, DBA/2, C3H/He, and CBA mice.