Transferrin Polymorphism in the Australian marsupial mouse Sminthopsis crassicaudata (Gould)

Abstract

A number of polymorphisms involving characteristics of the blood have been described in Australian marsupials, but the genetical control of these has been established only for variation in the iron-binding serum protein transferrin in the red kangaroo Macropus rufus (Desmarest) (= Megaleia rufa) (Cooper and Sharman 1964), and the eastern and western grey kangaroos Macropus giganteus (Shaw) and Macropus fuliginosus (Desmarest) (Kirsch and Poole 1967). Transferrin variation in the brush-tail possum Trichosurus vulpecula (Kerr), first detected by Kirsch (personal communication), is being studied in this laboratory. The inheritance of the protein patterns developed on a starch gel after electrophoresis may be ascribed to the actions of two or more autosomal allelic genes without dominance.