COMPARATIVE ALBUMIN AND BIOCHEMICAL EVOLUTION IN PLETHODONTID SALAMANDERS.

Abstract

Evidence that the serum protein albumin evolves step with other proteins was presented in 1973 (Sarich et al., 1973). A good correlation was demonstrated between micro-complement fixation (MC'F) measured albumin evolution and multiprotein evolution (as measured by Nei distance calculations from electrophoretic studies) for a few pairs of frog species and several pairs of primate species. This work was extended for frogs (Case et al., 1975) and further substantiated for mammals and reptiles by Sarich (1977). We present additional data on lungless salamanders of the family Plethodontidae, stemming from studies of several plethodontid genera (Wake et al., 1978; Highton and Larson, 1979; Maxson et al., 1979). We also compare albumin evolution in the genus Plethodon with DNA evolution as measured by DNA hybridization studies of Mizuno and Macgregor (1974). A good correlation is observed between albumin evolution and these other independent assessments of molecular evolution in salamanders.