Genetic control of the immune response to phage fd. IV. Complementation between H-2-linked Ir genes
Kölsch, E.; Falkenberg, F.W.
Journal of Immunology 120(6): 2087-2092
1978
ISSN/ISBN: 0022-1767 PMID: 96183 Document Number: 129009
The immune response to bacteriophage fd was tested in congenic resistant strains of mice. B10 mice are high responders; B10.BR and B10.D2 mice are low responders. B10.A mice with the recombinant H-2a haplotype and heterozygous H-2k/d (B10.BR .times. B10.D2) F1 mice respond with high antibody titers, indicating the existence of 2 complementing Ir genes. From the results obtained with recombinant and F1 hybrid mice, Irfd.alpha. was localized to the right of the crossover between the IE and IC subregions, Irfd.beta. to the left of IB, presumably at IA. Complementation was observed with selected pairs of alleles only, suggesting .alpha.-.beta. coupled complementation. Low responsiveness of B10.A(2R) and (B10.A .times. B10.A(2R) F1 mice was caused by a specific suppressor gene located at the Db subregion. This suppressor gene was active only with selected Irfd.beta. alleles. In addition to genes in the H-2 complex, there are non-H-2 background genes modulating H-2 regulated anti-fd response. B10.BR mice lacked primary IgM and IgG antibodies, yet were able to mount a secondary IgG anti-fd response, giving evidence for intact memory formattion in this low responder strain. The combined data were most easily interpreted by assuming that H-2 and non-H-2 genes modulated the effective immunogenic dose of antigen.