Abstract
The experiment was performed using the melting temperature of DNA as an indicator to study the genetic variability in the family Salmonidae living in freshwater in Japan. Fish used in this experiment were 8 species from 3 genera and 4 combinations of intergeneric hybrid. The melting temperature of each purified DNA extracted from liver was measured in 0.1×SSC.
The values of the melting temperature were very reproducible and the statistical tests showed significant differences at least 5% level except a few cases. The most wide range of the value was observed in the genus Oncorhynchus and the narrowest range was in the genus Salvelinus. In the case of intergeneric hybrids, most of them showed the middle value of their parents, and none of them fell on outside of their parental values.
