Fifteen samples of the ground-dwelling gecko Stenodactylus sthendodactylus inhabiting three Egyptian sandy desert localities at Fayoum, Giza and Sinai Peninsula were collected in this study. Polyacrylamide and agarose gel elctrophoresis were applied to examine phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (PGD), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and acid phospatase (ACP) in the liver tissues of these samples. Thirteen presumptive gene loci and twenty seven alleles were identified. Fayoum samples showed the highest genetic variability amongst the three studied populations. Out of thirteen recorded genetic loci, nine were polymorphic in Fayoum population while Giza and Sinai populations showed only three polymorphic loci. 31 % of Fayoum populations were shown to be heterozygotes compared to 7 % of Giza and 9 % of Sinai populations. The activities of both total enzymes and their fractions were shown to be generally higher in Giza samples than those of Fayoum and Sinai populations. Insignificant differences of both enzyme and fraction concentrations were revealed between Fayoum and Sinai samples except for PGD-3*, ACP-1* and ACP-2* which were significantly higher in Sinai populations.
Key words: Geckos, populations, isoenzymes electrophoresis, genetic variability
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