Comparative Investigation of Sporozoites of 4 Sarcocytis Species by Isoenzyme Electrophoresis
1992 Volume 2 Issue 3 Pages 123-127
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1992 Volume 2 Issue 3 Pages 123-127
Isoenzyme electrophoresis is described in the literature as a useful tool for the differentiation of Sarcocystis (S.) species. Isoenzyme patterns of Sarcocystis cystozoites were studied by Atkinson and Collins (1981), Ford (1986), O'Donoghue et al. (1986), and Ford et al. (1987) in order to characterize and compare isolates of different Sarcocystis species.
The purpose of our study was to investigate, whether S. arieticanis, S. ovicanis, S. capracanis, and S. hircicanis could be distinguished by the isoenzyme profiles of their sporozoites, which are life-cycle stages present in the definitive carnivorous hosts. Isoenzyme electrophoresis was performed on polyacrylamide gels, since this gel matrix was reported to give an improved resolution of bands compared with starch gels (Freese and Markus, 1990). In addition, an enzyme screening assay is described, which was performed in order to identify detectable enzyme activities in the samples prior to the isoenzyme electrophoresis.
