INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION OF ISOENZYMES IN TAENIA-TAENIAEFORMIS

Okamoto M., Ito A., Kurosawa T., Oku Y., Kamiya M. and Agatsuma T. 199 5. Intraspecific variation of isoenzymes in Taenia taeniaeformis. inte rnational Journal for Parasitology 25: 221-228. The technique of isoen zyme electrophoresis was applied to Japanese wild populations of Taeni a taeniaeformis (isolated from Norway rats) and three laboratory reare d isolates (KRN isolated from a Malaysian Norway rat, BMM from a Belgi an house mouse and ACR from a Japanese gray red-backed vote). The aver age heterozygosities of Japanese wild populations were fairly small an d total genetic variability was 0.0499. The genetic make-up of T. taen iaeformis in Norway rats was rather uniform in the whole of Japan. In KRN isolate, each of all 10 loci examined possessed the allele which w as predominant in Japanese wild populations, Similarly, each of 9 loci in BMM isolate possessed the same alleles, but one of 2 alleles at HK locus was different from that in the others. T. taeniaeformis parasit izing house mice and rats were considered to be genetically closely re lated to each other. In ACR isolate, 7 out of 10 loci possessed differ ent alleles from those in the other populations. It was considered tha t ACR isolate was genetically distant and its phylogenetic origin in J apan should be different from worms parasitizing Norway rats.