Abstract
PHOSPHOGLUCONATE dehydrogenase (PGD) has been found to be polymorphic in several species, including the rat, when studied by starch gel electrophoresis1. Investigation of this enzyme in the rat revealed three distinct electrophoretic phenotypes, giving respectively a slow migrating component, the S phenotype, a fast migrating component, the F type, and the SF phenotype, giving a triplet of electrophoretic bands comprising both the slow and the fast migrating bands, and also a strongly staining band with intermediate mobility2. As in all mammals, rat PGD was found to be controlled by an autosomal gene locus. The S phenotype seemed to be a consequence of a homozygous PGD genotype, PGDSPGDS. The SF and F types, commonly found in wild but not laboratory rats, were considered to be the product of genotypes PGDFPGDS and PGDFPGDF respectively. Each (presumably allelic) gene was thought to code for one type of polypeptide subunit (either s or f) and the triplet zymogram in heterozygotes was considered to be the result of the random association in pairs of subunits of these two varieties, thus producing three dimeric oligomers: ss, sf and ff. The three types of rat PGD were not found to differ from each other with respect to optimal pH, KM and stability.
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CARTER, N., PARR, C. Phosphogluconate Dehydrogenase Polymorphism in British Wild Rats. Nature 224, 1214 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/2241214a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2241214a0
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