Genetic analysis of induction of anti-polyadenylic acid antibodies and xenotropic type-C viruses.

Normal mice can be induced by lipopolysaccharide to produce anti-polyadenylic acid (poly A) antibodies and xenotropic (X-tropic) type-C viruses. To determine whether these traits are genetically linked, high anti-poly A antibody, high virus-producing NZB mice were crossed with low anti-poly A antibody-producing, virus-negative SWR mice. All mice in the F1 generation could be induced by LPS to produce high levels of both anti-poly A antibodies and X-tropic virus. When F1 hybrids were back-crossed to the SWR parent, all offspring were high anti-poly A antibody producers, but one-third of the mice remained virus-negative. These results demonstrate that these two LPS responses of a B lymphocyte are not genetically-linked and the anti-poly A antibody response is multigenic.