Erythrocyte membrane skeletal defects. (A) Coomassie blue-stained SDS-PAGE gels. Equal volumes of normal and mutant packed RBC ghosts/lane were loaded. The high percentage of circulating reticulocytes in mutants results in numerous additional bands and an overall smeared appearance, especially in the lower molecular weight ranges, on SDS-PAGE gels. The species indicated by the arrow is unknown; it is not band 3 because it is also present in band 3-null RBC ghosts.³⁴  (B) Western blots of RBC ghost proteins probed with the indicated antibodies. Each panel is representative of results from multiple blots. +/+, wild-type; −/−, homozygous mutant.