Isoenzyme Spectra of Lactate Dehydrogenase in Organs of Fur-Bearing Animals of Different Ecogenesis

On electrophoretic separation of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH, EC 1.1.1.27) isoenzymes in tissue extracts of heart, kidney, skeletal muscle, and liver in minks, ferrets, polar foxes, foxes, raccoon dogs, nutria, and chinchillas, species peculiarities were revealed in ratios of the agar gel electrophoretic fractions. Thus, a higher relative content of the enzyme A-subunits in the LDH spectra of liver and skeletal muscles was found in semiaquatic animals, minks and nutrias, in comparison with terrestrial animals, polar foxes, ferrets, and chinchillas. In raccoon dogs and chinchillas, a high relative content of the enzyme B-subunits was revealed in these organs. All these data are an example of biochemical specialization of functions at the molecular level to ecological environmental conditions.__________Translated from Zhurnal Evolyutsionnoi Biokhimii i Fiziologii, Vol. 41, No. 3, 2005, pp. 240–246.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Tyutyunnik, Kozhevnikova, Unzhakov, Meldo.