New Genotypes in Cod at Greenland

Abstract

THE blood sera of cod (Gadus morrhua L.) show certain protein types which were believed to be inherited. MØller¹ tested blood samples from cod caught along the Norwegian coast and in the Barents Sea, and described eleven molecular patterns of iron-binding proteins, or transferrins. Ten of the observed patterns represented all the possible genotypes attributable to four co-dominant allelomorphic genes Tf^A, Tf^B, Tf^C and Tf^D, each controlling one of four proteins. Gel electrophoresis revealed each protein as a discrete band. The alphabetical order of the gene suffixes followed the decreasing order of their electrophoretic mobility. Mø11er's remaining type of pattern contained a rare protein with an intermediate mobility faster than that of the protein attributed to the commonest allelomorph Tf^c, and he proposed a new allelomorph Tf^C1. Møller found six examples of Tf^C1/Tf^C, and his genetic interpretation anticipated the existence of the genotypes Tf^A/Tf^C1, Tf^B/Tf^C1, Tf^C1/Tf^C1 and Tf^C1/Tf^D. Numerous examples of each of these anticipated genotypes have in fact been discovered in the blood sera of West Greenland cod, and are presented here for the first time.