AN ESTIMATE OF THE AMOUNT OF GENETIC-VARIATION IN A POPULATION OF THEBULLDOG MARCUSENIUS-MACROLEPIDOTUS (MORMYRIDAE)

As far as could be ascertained, this is the first account of allozyme variation in mormyrids. Five (3 continuous and 2 discontinuous) buffer systems were used and 29 enzymes and proteins were stained for, of wh ich 26 revealed interpretable results. Gene products of 52 protein cod ing loci in M. macrolepidotus were examined by horizontal starch gel e lectrophoresis genetic variation was observed at 21 (40.4%) of these l oci. The percentage of polymorphic loci, the mean number of alleles pe r locus and the average hererozygosity per locus were 30.8% (0.95 crit erion), 1.44 (+/-0.08) and 0.09 (+/-0.02) respectively. Genetic variat ion is comparable to values obtained for other freshwater fish species from the Zambezi River.