COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF LACTATE-DEHYDROGENASE IN 15 GENERA OF NEW-WORLD MONKEYS

Electrophoretic variation of LDH was investigated in 3,200 specimens b elonging to 28 species and 15 genera of New World monkeys. A small sam ple of (Old World) Cercopithecus aethiops was also tested for comparis on. Variation was observed in seven species, five alleles being detect ed for both LDHA and LDHB loci. The frequency of the variant alleles w as low in almost all species, the exceptions being Callithrix kuhli an d Callithrix jacchus penicillata, in which the LDHA 5 allele showed f requencies of 47% and 60%, respectively. In the monomorphic patterns t he B4 and A4 bands were the same in all fifteen genera, but difference s were observed in the B3A1, B2A2 and B1A3 hybrid bands. Furthermore, only the B4 band was shared by humans, Old World and New World monkeys . An important marker was found in the genus Cebus, which clearly dist inguishes the ''tufted'' and ''untufted'' groups.