Conservation of genetic variety of strains maintained in live gene ban
ks is a high-priority task. Description of the genetic structure shoul
d be the first step in this work. By applying different biochemical-ge
netic markers such as transferrin and isoenzymes, the individuals and
the populations could be well characterised genetically. Based on this
, breeding programs as well as conservation of races can be carried ou
t without disappearance of genes from the pool. The aim of this survey
was to describe the polymorphism of transferrins of carp strains in t
he live gene bank maintained at the Fish Culture Research Institute, S
zarvas, Hungary. Biochemical polymorphism was studied by standard meth
ods of horizontal electrophoresis in starch gel as well as vertical el
ectrophoresis in polyacrylamid gel. A total of 840 breeders of 15 carp
races were sampled. Identification of transferrin genotypes was made
by the traditional classification. In the 15 carp populations, 20 tran
sferrin genotypes were described (AA, BE, DD, EE, FF, GG, AB, AD, AF,
AG, ED, BE, BG, DE, DF, DG, EF; EG, FG, and FH) in the presence of 7 a
lleles (A, B, D, E, F, H and G). The frequency of allele D was very hi
gh (0.34-0.62) in all populations except one (koi). It was remarkable
that the frequency of allele D was very low (0.0698) in this group sho
wing the highest variability, while the frequency of allele B, being v
ery rare in all other races, was relatively high (0.27) in the group o
f koi.