ABSTRACT
Monoclonal antibodies specific for human globin chains have been prepared and the following strategy has been applied in delimiting the antigenic sites involved in antibody binding. The structural sites of the human globin subunit that might be recognised by the monoclonal antibody were deduced from comparisons of the primary structures of mamalian globin chains that did or did not react with the antibody. The involvement of individual residues at these specific sites was subsequently tested by reacting the antibody with abnormal human haemoglobins in which there was either a substitution or a structural site recognised by monoclonal antibody HuHb á 3-2 (an antibody that reacts with the adult haemoglobins from man and macaque monkey, but not with those from baboon and mouse) includes the aspartic acid residue at position 52 of the á-globin subunit.(AU)