Genetic regulation of multispecific antibody responsiveness: improvement of "high" and "low" characters.

The five selections carried out in the mouse for high or low antibody responsiveness to various multideterminant immunogens were successful. In all cases the large interline difference was shown to result from the additive effects of several independently segregating loci (polygenic regulation). However, important peculiarities were demonstrated in these original selections concerning either the cellular mechanisms operating or the effect of the selected genes on antibody responses to antigens unrelated with those used for the selection (multi-specific effect). In an attempt to improve and generalize the effect of selection, the 5 high and the 5 low lines were inter-crossed to obtain populations with a balanced proportion of the 5 genomes. These two populations were then submitted to selective breedings in which the phenotypic character was the weighted responses to pluri-antigen immunization. The data obtained in 16 consecutive generations of two selective breedings (general-primary, GP and general-secondary, GS, responses) carried out from these populations are reported. The genetic parameters of the response to GP and GS selections are compared with those obtained in the original selections. The final result of both GP and GS selections demonstrate a marked improvement of the high and low antibody production traits, both quantitatively (interline divergence) and qualitatively (multi-specific effect). The success of GP and GS selections agrees with the concept that distinct groups of genes are preferentially affected by selection according to the nature of the selection antigen and the immunization procedure.