Starch-gel electrophoretic variants of erythrocyte 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase in asian macaques

Five alleles with eight electrophoretic phenotypes of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase were found in 1,195 blood samples from fourteen populations of nine macaque species.Macaca fascicularis from Malaya showed the most polymorphism, with three Pgd alleles resulting in five phenotypes.Macaca mulatta, M. speciosa, M. nemestrina, andM. cyclopis had two alleles each (although the last two species showed a high percentage of homozygosity). The remaining four species (M. fuscata, M. radiata, M. maura, andM. nigra) were homozygous for the Pgd^a allele. The predominance of Pgd^a was observed in all macaque species, exceptM. speciosa which showed a high (57%) frequency of Pgd^d. The distinctive position ofM. speciosa with regard to 6PGD variants parallels observations that indicate that this species carries transferrin and carbonic anhydrase I alleles in different frequencies from those of the other macaque species. Other similarities between the patterns of transferrin and 6PGD variations include a tendency toward homozygosity at the Pgd locus in the insular macaque forms. However, in this case only the Pgd^a allele is involved, while some variation was found in the transferrin alleles fixed by the founder effect in the insular macaques.This research was supported by NSF grants GF 253, GB 7426, and GB 15060 of the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Science and Systematic Biology Programs.