AbstractIn order to study the specificity of H‐linked Ir gene control in more detail the polypeptide poly(LTyr, LGlu>poly(DLAla)–poly(LLys) ((T, G)‐A‐L) was modified by replacing the (T, G) copolymers by various defined tyrosine‐containing oligopeptides. It was found that the antibody response to all of the analogs of (T, G)‐A–L tested was influenced to some extent by H‐2‐linked Ir gene(s), the response pattern being concordant with that of (T, G)‐A–L. Some of the antigens carrying structurally and serologically distinct oligopeptides were as efficient with respect to high/low responder discrimination as (T, G)‐A–L, others including the core polypeptide A‐L itself were weakly immunogenic and gave only a small high/low responder split.Certain experimental data indicate that in addition to the tyrosine peptides the poly‐DL‐alanine side chains may play an important role for the recognition of these polypeptides. The possibility that the common response pattern could be due to an Ir gene specific mainly for the DL‐alanine peptides is discussed. Specificity of genetic control would then be relatively independent of the serological specificity of the tyrosine peptides. On the other hand, recognition of the analogs and of (T, G)‐A–L could be controlled by separate but closely linked Ir genes specific for each of the terminal peptide determinants which probably include the adjacent alanine residues.Genetic factors outside the H‐2 complex have in addition to the H‐linked Ir genes been found to exert a strong influence on the antibody resp
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