Abstract
A variant hemoglobin was found initially in the Ihama troop at the Izu Peninsula, after examined more than 1000 samples of Macaca fuscata. The variant hemoglobin showed a slower migrating mobility than the normal hemoglobin in starch gels at alkaline pH, when released from the red cells, and possessed an unusual property that formed molecular aggregates, like Hb-Pmi of Macaca irus, but differed from that in several respects.
The aggregated forms of the fuscata variant were observed to show less heterogeneous than those of Pmi, and their molecular size was estimated to correspond to two normal hemoglobins. Electrophoretic and peptide mapping studies revealed that the abnormality of the variant rested in β-chain at one of the residues corresponding to the peptide βTp 10.
The variant phenotypes were found in polymorphic frequency only in two populations, the Ihama and Yugawara, out of more than 30 troops examined. The distribution pattern that the occurrence of variant alleles is restricted to some of the troops was quite similar to the other polymorphic traits sofar investigated in Macaca fuscata.
Hb-Pfus Ihama or fuscata Hb-Ihama is proposed to this variant hemoglobin.
