Egg albumen polymorphisms in the Fowl: lociIIandIII

Abstract

The genetics of two polymorphic loci in the fowl was studied. Each affects the electrophoretic mobility of a different egg albumen protein, and at each locus two alleles were shown to segregate in a Mendelian manner.The polymorphic proteins are not any of the well-characterized egg albumen proteins, viz. ovalbumin, ovomucoid, ovomucin, flavoprotein, avidin and lysozyme.In contrast to all others, two hens were found to have an anomalous, variable, phenotype. A tentative explanation of this was offered.