Isoenzyme variation in four Acacia species

Abstract

Many species of Acacia are grown as multipurpose trees in monoculture plantations as well as in multispecies agroforestry systems in the tropics including India. The various classifications of acacias are not comprehensive and still debatable. Study of the isoenzyme pattern is considered as an important tool to understand the genetic relationship between individuals, provenances, species and also for the identification of hybrids. Depending on the molecular weight of these zwitterions, their mobility in an electrophoretic medium varies. This differential movement is a direct manifestation of the genetic make up responsible for such multiple forms of isoenzymes. Genetically, the production of isoenzymes of multiple forms or molecular weight is accounted to the allelic variation of the organisms. Thus isoenzyme of a particular molecular weight can be considered as a direct manifestation of the blue print of the specific gene loci. lsoenzymes are more advantageous to study the variation in species or provenance due to their co-dominant expression, freedom from environmental influences and ease with which large number of individuals can be simultaneously evaluated over many loci [1].