A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE GENETICS OF RESTING BLOOD LACTIC ACID LEVELS IN MICE

Patricia L. Hatchell ¹ and James W. MacInnes ¹

¹ Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80302

Resting blood lactate levels were measured in inbred mouse strains, their F₁, and several of their segregating generations to determine whether the level of lactic acid is influenced by genetic factors. The inbred strains in each of the two sets used differed significantly from one another for this character. Only one strain showed a significant sex difference. The data could not be fully analyzed because of the failure to fulfill Mather's first criterion for an adequate scale. Nonallelic interactions, in particular, additive x dominance and dominance x dominance, were found to influence the generation means. Genotype x environment interaction was detected and eliminated by log transformation. Negative heterosis was exhibited by all but one noninbred generation.—The data suggest that genes influencing the character are dispersed between the parental lines and that interactions are predominantly of the duplicate kind. A buffering system by which lactate levels are kept at a minimum is proposed.