β-Globulin Variants in Man

Abstract

USING starch-gel electrophoresis, Smithies has discovered several β-globulin patterns in human plasma. He refers to these as βC, βBC, βCD and βD ^1,2. βC is the type most commonly found, but βBC occurred in about 1 per cent of Canadians and βCD in about 4 per cent of American Negroes and even more frequently in Australian Aboriginals. The formation of the different β-globulins B, C and D appears to be genetically controlled and Smithies suggests that each may be determined by one of three allelic genes.