α-Glycerophosphate dehydrogenase in the American cockroach, and its use as a phenetic tool in cockroaches

Abstract

• 1.

  1. Extracts from each of the fat body, thoracic and appendage muscle of both sexes of the American cockroach yielded a single disc electrophoretic GDH fraction, which was quantitative and qualitatively stable during the first 6 months of the imago.

• 2.

  2. Enzymes extracts from 3 cockroach species were heat stable at 52° for 30 min.

• 3.

  3. GDH patterns were highly species-specific among the 24 cockroach species analyzed. Generic relationships were postulated on the basis of R_f similarity.

• 4.

  4. Clones of parthogenetic Pycnoscelus surinamensis, with modal chromosome complements of 34 to 54, each had a single GDH fraction and all R_f values were identical.