Electrophoretic Identification of Three Subspecies of the Genus Lagocephalus Pufferfish

Abstract

Attempts were made to identify electrophoretically three subspecies of the genus Lagocephalus pufferfish: “kurosabafugu” L. lunaris subsp., “shirosabafugu” L. lunsris spadiceus, and “dokusabafugu” L. lunaris lunaris.
The extracts were prepared from the ordinary muscle of those three subspecies, and analyzed for patterns of sarcoplasmic protein and several enzymes by polyacerylamide gel electrophoresis.
The three subspecies clearly differed from each other in sarcoplasmic protein pattern, though small individual variations were recognized in L. lunaris spadiceus and L. lunaris lunaris.
Of the exzymes tested, the most specific to the subspecies was malate dehydrogenase (MDH), followed by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and phosphoglucomutase (PGM).