Studies of primate protein variation and evolution: microelectrophoretic detection

Genetic variation at 16 protein and enzyme loci in Ceropithecus aethiops and several other primate species has been surveyed, using cellulose acetate microelectrophoresis. Resolution of several standard variant proteins is comparable to that achieved on starch gel or polyacrylamide gel. Although both intraspecific and interspecific variation was observed for some loci, the data generally support the concept that extracellular proteins are more likely to be polymorphic within a species, while intracellular proteins generally vary between species, if at all. These methodologies are particularly appropriate for screening multiple-locus variation in large numbers of samples; their relevance to studies of molecular evolution and evaluation of theories of kin selection is discussed.