Náttúrufræðingurinn - 1970, Page 42

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Smithies, O. 1955. Zone electrophoresis of serum in starch gels. Group varia-
tions in the serum proteins of normal human adults. Biochent. f. 61: 629.
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Ltd., London.
S U M M A R Y
Some electrophoretic studies of proteins
in the Rock Ptarmigan, Lngopus mutus
by Alfred Árnason,
Museunt of Natural History, P. O. Box 5320,
Reykjavík, Iceland.1)
Introduction
The Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) is a circumpolar species, found at
higli latitudes. Johansen (1956) divides L. mutus into three groups: The
European, American and Asiatic. The lcelandic Rock Ptarmigan (L. mulus
islandorum) belongs to the American group. Short (1967) suggests that the
genus Lagopus originated in North-America and spread from there both to
the east and the west. Hence we probably have the two ends of the chain of
populations of L. mutus at each side of the North-Atlantic. The aim of this
preliminary investigation was twofold: To look for protein polymorphism
within the Icelandic population and between Ptarmigan from Greenland, Ice-
land and Nórway. Tlie author could not find any references to work of this
kind carried out on the Rock Ptarmigan.
Materials and Methods
A horizontal starch-gel electrophoresis was used to separate the proteins:
Gel-buffers:
1. Tris-citrate-borate buffer pH 8,6 (Ferguson and Wallace 1961, modified
Árnason and Pantelouris 1966).
2. Tris-citrate buffer pH 7,6 (Árnason and Pantelouris 1966).
1) This work was carried out in connection with a research project supported
by grants (GB-876 and GB-3326) from the U. S. National Science Foundation
to the Museum of Natural History, Reykjavík.