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Biochemical Genetics (v.35, #9-10)
Swine Catalase Deduced from cDNA and Localization of the Catalase Gene on Swine Chromosome 2p16-p15
by Zhi Hong Lin; Yi Fei Wang; Akinori Sarai; Hiroshi Yasue (pp. 297-302).
Genetic Polymorphism of Cat (Felis catus) Plasma Orosomucoid by Haruhiro Yoshida; Helen Arthur; Kevin Bell (pp. 303-314).
Genetic polymorphism of orosomucoid (ORM) was observed in 22 breeds of cats (Felis catus) using isoelectric focusing (pH 4.0–6.5) of desialylated plasmas followed by immunoblotting with rabbit antiserum to human ORM. From a total of 943 plasma samples examined, 15 phenotypes were identified and family studies demonstrated an inheritance of five codominant alleles, ORMA, ORMB, ORMC, ORMD, and ORME, at a single locus.
Keywords: orosomucoid; polymorphism; genetics; Felis catus
Bezoar (Capra aegagrus) Is a Matriarchal Candidate for Ancestor of Domestic Goat (Capra hircus): Evidence from the Mitochondrial DNA Diversity by Toyoyuki Takada; Yoshiaki Kikkawa; Hiromichi Yonekawa; Shigehisa Kawakami; Takashi Amano (pp. 315-326).
The leading hypothesis on the ancestor of domestic goats (Capra hircus) is that it is the wild goat called the bezoar or pasang (Capra aegagrus). To verify this hypothesis, we sequenced and compared the cytochrome b gene of mitochondrial DNA from six domestic goats and a bezoar. A further sequence for the markhor was taken from the database. In total we detected 51 nucleotide substitutions among the domestic goats, bezoar and markhor. However, only one specific nucleotide substitution was found between the domestic goats and the bezoar. On the other hand, 43 nucleotide substitutions were specific for the markhor. This result suggested a close relationship between the domestic goats and the bezoar. A neighbor-joining and parsimony phylogenetic tree constructed using the sequences showed that the domestic goats and the bezoar belong to the same cluster, while the markhor showed a distinct cluster separate from that of the domestic/bezoar cluster. This result was confirmed by trees based on the sequence of the mitochondrial displacement loop regions. These results suggest that the strongest candidate for a matriarchal ancestor of domestic goats is the bezoar.
Keywords: bezoar; domestic goat; mitochondrial cytochrome b gene; mitochondrial displacement loop (D-loop); phylogenetic analysis
DNA Evidence of the Origin of Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans in the Americas by L. I. de Guzman; T. E. Rinderer; J. A. Stelzer (pp. 327-335).
Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was used to examine possible origin of Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans in the Americas. Among 64 primers screened, 2 primers provided variation which was informative for this study. All V. jacobsoni collected from the United States had the same banding pattern to that of mites collected from Russia, Morocco, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal (Russian pattern). This banding pattern was different from the pattern found for mites collected from Japan, Brazil, and Puerto Rico (Japanese pattern). The Japanese pattern lacked a 766-bp band found in the Russian pattern (OPE-07). With primer OPP-03, the Russian pattern had a distinct band at 442 bp not found in the Japanese pattern. Two bands located at 675 and 412 bp were specific to the Japanese pattern. These results suggest that the V. jacobsoni of the United States is probably predominantly Russian in origin (via Europe), while the V. jacobsoni of Brazil and Puerto Rico are probably predominantly Japanese in origin.
Keywords: Varroa jacobsoni ; honey bees; randomly amplified polymorphic DNA; genetic variability