Technical notes on acrylamide gel electrophoresis used for comparing isozymes of mosquito larvae

Various slight modifications of electrophoretic techniques were tried to obtain more reproducible results for comparing several isozymes with individual mosquito larvae. Horizontal electrophoresis was done using polyacrylamide gel plates of 1 mm thickness on a simple cooling system in which ice-cold water was circulated. This made it possible to carry out electrophoresis effectively even during field work in tropical areas. Gel concentration in routine work is 5% for usual enzymes, but for esterase, 6% gels have been adopted. Gel concentrations, running distance, running time, visualization of isozyme bands, etc., have especially been considered.