STUDY OF THE SOLUBLE WHITE MUSCLE-TISSUE PROTEINS FROM 15 SPARIDAE SPECIES

Soluble proteins of white skeletal muscle tissue of 15 species of Sparidae were analysed. Species‐specific electrophoretic and isoelectric focusing patterns were found. Some bands exhibited the same mobility at genus level or at subfamily level, others differed significantly. Considerable similarity was observed in the species of the genera Spams, Pagellus and Diplodus. Significant differences in the protein bands were noted between the contained subfamilies Denticinae, Sparinae and Boopsinae, confirming the existence of three separate phyletic lines within the family Sparidae. This study has shown that in these species there is a similarity between classifications based on morphological data and those derived from biochemical studies. Variation within species can be corrected for by carrying out multiple inter‐specific comparisons and determining the variance of the similarity coefficients. Closely related species have similar patterns and, thus, higher similarity coefficients. The discrepancy in similarity matrices based on morphology and white skeletal muscle tissue proteins of sea bream species shows that electrophoretic methods provide additional information relevant to the systematics of fishes. Further work on comparison on soluble red muscle proteins of these species is proposed. Copyright © 1991, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved