Polymorphism of esterases in plasma of foxes

Abstract
Plasma samples from 114 arctic foxes and 40 silver foxes have been investigated by use of isoelectric focusing in polyacrylamide gels. At pH ranges 4-6.5 and 4.2-4.9 and after specific staining, arylesterase (AArE) appeared as polymorphic band patterns. These could be explained by three codominant alleles in arctic foxes and two codominant alleles in silver foxes. Segregation figures in families agreed with the genetic theory.