Genetic Studies on the Pacific Abalone—III: Differences in Electrophoretic Patterns between Haliotis discus Reeve and H. discus hannai Ino

Comparison of electrophoretic patterns of 11 enzymes and myogen disclosed that the presence or absence of the three loci, among 19 loci examined, encoding sorbitol dehydrogenase, adenylate kinase, and malate dehydrogenase can be the key characters for identifying H. discus, H. discus hannai, and their hybrids, that can not be distinguished clearly by the morphological traits each other. Application of the key characters exhibited polymorphic structure within the hybrids and uncovered the sympatric distribution of the three groups of the abalones, two parental varieties and their hybrids, in the waters of Oga, Akita and Yuki, Tokushima Prefectures sampled. Possible usefulness of the key characters in predicting and evaluating an outcome of inter-species-hybridization in breeding science and the significance of the dynamic features of the sympatric occurrence of the three groups of the abalones in the ecological genetics were discussed.