The Journal of Heredity 1981:72(2):144-146
© 1981 The American Genetic Association 72:144-146
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Albinism and its inheritance in populations of the montane vole
The author is NIMH Fellow in the Department of Sociology. Cornell University, Ithaca. NY 14853. He thanks the University of Wyoming-National Park Service Research Center for the use of its Research Station facilities, the National Park Service for a permit to trap in Grand Tclon National Park, and the Department of Poultry Science and the Section of Nourobiology and Behavior of Cornell University for the use of laboratory animal facilities. He also thanks the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fund of the American Museum of Natural History and the Society of Sigma Xi for grants-in-aid of research for field work and the establishment of the breeding colony.
Abstract
Albinism was observed in natural populations of the montane vole, Microtus montanus nanus, in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Two individuals, apparently littermates, were captured in a high density population in 1976, and a third was taken at the same site from a high density population one year later. Laboratory breeding tests established that albinism in this species is inherited as an autosomal homozygous recessive. Territorial polygyny and the occurrence of extended maternal families at high densities may result in significant amounts of inbreeding as evidenced by presumably maladaptive homozygous recessive pelage variants such as albino.