A Bombay, Le(a-b-) saliva was shown to lack Pneumococcus type XIV activity, an unusual situation, since this sample should be rich in this precursor to the ABO blood group substances. However, the sample was found to contain a new serological specificity, Le-c. It is argued that simple Mendelian inheritance does not occur with Le-c and single gene control cannot be demonstrated. Failure to repress a fetal gene at birth, as implicated by the similarity in structure between Le-c and carcinoembryonic antigen [SIMMONS and PERLMANN], has been excluded as the mechanism of inheritance of this blood group substance, due to the inability to detect carcinoembryonic antigen in the test saliva.
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