Inheritance of a parotid secretory protein in mice and its use in determining salivary amylase quantitative variants.

Among inbred strains of mice, a major protein, PSP, produced and secreted by the parotid glands, shows variation in electrophoretic mobility and in the peptides produced by cyanogen bromide treatment. This variation is inherited as a single Mendelian factor with two alleles showing co-dominant expression. In genetic crosses, it segregates independently from the amylase complex and is closely linked to the agouti locus on chromosome 2. The protein ratios between amylase and PSP in saliva, obtained by scanning of electrophoretic gel separations, were found to reflect genetic differences in salivary amylase production in strains YBR/Cv and C3H/As.