The Number of Genes for Lactate Dehydrogenase in Salmonid Fishes

Abstract

Rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) that show polymorphism at the ldhHα locus for liver lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (L-lactate: NAD oxidoreductase, EC 1.1.1.27) have been examined electrophoretically and immunologically. These results show that the ldhHα locus is active in two possible allelic forms, ldhHα^A and ldhHα^B, in many tissues such as heart, liver, kidney, eye, red blood cell, brain, and pyloric caeca. Quantitative microcomplement fixation tests support the contention that Hα^A and Hα^B subunits are allelic variants. These results, combined with electrophoretic studies on brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) polymorphic at the ldhHβ locus, lead us to conclude that all isozymes for LDH in salmonid fishes can be accounted for by the activity of four, and possibly five structural loci: ldhHα, ldhHβ, ldhC, ldhMα, and possibly ldhMβ. These results are in contrast to previous suggestions that the multiple lactate dehydrogenases of trout are encoded by 8 or 10 structural genes per haploid genome.