Separation of allelic variants by two-dimensional electrophoresis

The resolving power of two-dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis has been tested using 17 allele products at five loci. Standard O'Farrell gels could separate 13 of these isozymes. The addition of a second pH gradient made it possible to separate all but one of the variant proteins. These results indicate that 2-D gel electrophoresis can resolve more than 90% of variants originally detected by one-dimensional (1-D) electrophoresis. The implications of these results for the low estimates of average heterozygosity obtained in surveys using 2-D gel electrophoresis are discussed.