Ox erythrocyte agglutinability. 4. The effect of neuraminidase treatment on the agglutinability of cells and ghosts

1. The inherited differential agglutinability of cattle erythrocytes is shown to be similarly expressed on ghosts and intact cells.
2. Removal of virtually all sialic acid by prolonged neuraminidase treatment does not alter the agglutinability status of ghosts prepared from either high or low agglutinable cells. Hence the differing sialic acid content of the two cell types is not responsible for the differential agglutinability.
3. The significance of these findings with respect to other well defined agglutination systems and current theories of membrane structure is discussed.