Isozymes: Application for Population Genetics

Electrophoresis as such has been applied for many purposes, among these, analysis of isozymes or isoenzymes. As the designation indicates, this is a group of enzymes having the same catalytic ability, i.e. they catalyse the same chemical reaction. Due to the fact that enzymes are proteins and built from amino acids, they possess an electric change so isozymes are enzymes with the same catalytic ability, but different electric charge. The charge will cause the enzyme to migrate in an electric field, the migration rate may be faster or slower, depending on the carrying media (see section 3 on electrophoresis) and the power applied. In order to detect the enzyme, the substrate for the particular enzyme and needed co-factors are added, so that the enzymatic reaction can take place. An array of enzymatic detection methods based on for instance histochemical or fluorogenic procedures are known (Manchenko 1994). The revealed pattern is called a zymogram (Fig.1).