Multiple haemoglobins in three tilapiine species of the genus Oreochromis and in eight strains of O. niloticus (L.)

Among three tilapiine species, Oreochromis aureus (Steindachner), O mossambicus (Peters) and O. niloticus (L.), fifteen banding positions of haemoglobin were resolved using citric acid-aminopropylmorpholine pH 7.0 buffer. O. mossambicus and O. aureus displayed 7 and 8 fixed band locations, respectively, whereas eight strains of O. niloticus from Asian cultured and African wild populations showed a total of 14. Variability in the O. niloticus strains, manifested as presence or absence of haemoglobin bands, was observed in banding positions 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13 and 14. Six banding positions in O. niloticus were shared with O. mossambicus and 8 with O. aureus. A dendrogram constructed from distance coefficients between popu-lation pairs using the presence or absence data showed the close affinity among O. niloticus strains belonging to the O. niloticus niloticus subspecies. A slight separation of Kenya O. niloticus from the O. niloticus niloticus strains is consistent with its subspecific distinction as O. niloticus vulcani. Among three species, O. niloticus had a closer affinity to O. aureus than to O. mossambicus. The phylogenetic relation-ships using differences in haemoglobin patterns and the higher genetic variability of O. niloticus reflect similar results obtained from existing studies using allozymes. In general, the presence of multiple fish haemoglobins is attributed to their adaptability to haeterogeneous environments. This attribute is typical of tilapias.