Biochemical attempt to characterize thirteen cichlid species by their muscular parvalbumins.

This paper shows the usefulness of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) separation of a few well-characterized muscle proteins, the parvalbumins, in the systematic study of 13 cichlid species. The separation of the isoforms of these abundant, quite species-specific fish parvalbumins is fast, easy, and requires but small quantities of muscle material. Used alone, this technique suggests hypotheses for species classification. In conjunction with morphological analysis, it makes it possible to confirm or invalidate doubts about the determination.