Electrophoretic Identification of Puffers

Attempts were made to identify sixteen species of puffers electrophoretically. The myogen fractions were prepared from the ordinary muscle of the puffers, and subjected to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. After the runs, the gels were stained for protein with Coomassie brilliant blue, and for some enzymes such as malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and phosphoglucomutase (PGM) with specific reagents. The results obtained showed that the protein patterns are species-specific enough to permit identification of most of the puffers. The MDH and PGM isozyme patterns were less species-specific. The puffers were hardly distinguishable from each other when the myogen fractions were subjected to cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis. On the other hand, the myogen fractions of most puffers exhibited species-specific protein patterns when subjected to isoelectric focusing, followed by Coomassie brilliant blue staining.It was concluded from the above results that puffers can be practically identified by the above electrophoretic techniques except cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis, and that a more reliable identification can be attained by the combined use of these techniques.