ISOZYME ANALYSIS OF ANAEROBIC RUMEN FUNGI AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO AEROBIC CHYTRIDS

Isozymes of 23 cultures of the anaerobic rumen fungi and seven culture s of aerobic chytridiomycete fungi were analysed by PAGE. A total of 1 4 isozyme loci were successfully typed by PAGE. They were peptidase A & C-1, peptidase A & C-2, peptidase D-1, peptidase D-2, malate dehydro genase-1, malate dehydrogenase-2, esterase-l, esterase-2, malic enzyme -1, malic enzyme-2, isocitrate dehydrogenase, shikimate dehydrogenase, phosphoglucomutase and C-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase. Isozyme anal ysis can be used for studying the genetic relationships among the diff erent anaerobic rumen fungi and the aerobic chytridiomycete fungi and the isozyme characteristics can serve as additional taxonomic criteria in the classification of the anaerobic rumen fungi. A dendrogram base d on the isozyme data demonstrated that the anaerobic rumen fungi form ed a cluster, indicating a monophyletic group, distinctly separated fr om the aerobic chytridiomycete fungi. Piromyces communis and P. minutu s showed a close relationship but P. spiralis showed a more distant re lationship to both P. communis and P. minutus. Piromyces as a whole wa s more related to Caecomyces than to Neocallimastix. Orpinomyces was a lso found to be more related to Piromyces and Caecomyces than to Neoca llimastix. Orpinomyces intercalaris C 70 from cattle showed large gene tic variation from O. joyonii, indicating that it is a different speci es.