Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Thermostability studies for investigating non-electrophoretic polymorphic alleles in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

ON theoretical grounds it is generally believed that most structural genes have common isoelectrophoretic alleles1–3—polymorphic alleles that cannot be discovered by electrophoresis—but there is no direct evidence for this. Methods that might be used to search for such structural variability (involving, for example, thermostability or kinetic studies) have not often been adopted as screening procedures though they have been used to compare already identified electrophoretic alleles. This is not only because such methods are often unsuitable for screening purposes. Even when a screening method can be applied, its efficiency in revealing existing structural variability is not known a priori, not even approximately, as for electrophoresis. Moreover, this unknown efficiency is presumably very low because although electrophoresis, being a separation technique, separates the products of two alleles in heterozygotes, other screening procedures only pick up the combined products which may or may not show an intermediate characteristic. It would usually be extremely difficult to distinguish between the three types. Thus, for any enzyme for which such a method is available, a two-step procedure seems convenient: (a) to test it on already known structural (electrophoretic) alleles of that enzyme, and if it turns out that it is efficient (b) to use the method in a search for structural isoelectrophoretic alleles. It must be assumed that these two types of structural differences are, on average, equally likely to affect the parameter being studied.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lewontin, R. C., A. Rev. Genet., 1, 37–70 (1967).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Maynard Smith, J., Nature new Biol., 237, 31 (1972).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Harris, H., in The Principles of Human Biochemical Genetics (North-Holland, Amsterdam, London, 1975).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Trippa, G., Santolamazza, G., and Scozzari, R., Biochem. Genet., 4, 665–667 (1970).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Trippa, G., Barberio, C., Loverre, A., and Arcudi, D., Atti Acad. Naz. Lincei, 52, 947–951 (1972).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Spencer, N., Hopkinson, D. A., and Harris, H., Nature, 204, 742–745 (1964).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bernstein, S. C., Throckmorton, L. H., and Hubby, J. L., Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 70, 3928–3931 (1973).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Singh, R. S., Hubby, J. L., and Lewontin, R. C., Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 71, 1808–1810 (1974).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Greene, M. L., Boyle, J. A., and Seegmiller, J. E., Science, 167, 887–889 (1970).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

TRIPPA, G., LOVERRE, A. & CATAMO, A. Thermostability studies for investigating non-electrophoretic polymorphic alleles in Drosophila melanogaster. Nature 260, 42–44 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/260042a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/260042a0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing