Caracterizacion genetica y morfologica de las poblaciones de Cyprinodon dear-borni (Atherinomorpha: Cyprinodontidae) en Chacopata y Laguna de los Patos, Venezuela / Genetic and morphological characteristics of the populations of Cyprinodon dearborni (Atherinomorpha: Cyprinodontidae) in Chacopata and Laguna de los Patos, Venezuela

Two populations of the fish Cyprinodon dearborni were compared, one from Laguna de Chacopata and the other from Laguna de los Patos, Cumana, Venezuela. The morphometric method of the Box Truss was used; the organisms were photographed with a digital camera. In the images 18 measures were made to each organism, with the MOCHA 1.2 program. The tendencies of morphologic variation among populations were analyzed by main components using STATGRAPHICS 2.0 and SHEAR programs. The first four main components in males and females explained 88 of the total variation. The components two, three and four separate the two populations based on the body form of the animals. For the electrophoretic study, 13 enzymatic systems were analyzed in starch gels. The variation and genetic distance were calculated with the program GENES 2.0. Differences were observed in the systems G6PDH, GPI; ES and GLUD, that which can be used as isoenzimatic markers. Genetic diversity of Chacopata (H = 0.086, p = 0.079) was higher than in Laguna de los Patos (H = 0.029, p = 0.028), but both are within the average in populations of fish. The two populations presented a Nei distance of 0.058. The genetic and morphologic differentiation suggests an incipient process of separation whose causes could be the ecological conditions of their habitat, or processes of vicariant speciation.

Polymorphisms of octopine dehydrogenase (Odh) in mollusks and implications for the neutralism-selectionism hypothesis

Octopine dehydrogenase (Odh) was examined in several species of bivalves and gastropods and complemented with bibliographic data, to assess the controversy between neutralism and selectionism in explaining the maintenance of genetic variation in natural populations. This debate was the center of the molecular evolution and population genetic research in the 1970s and 1980s, but waned thereafter, without resolution. Although DNA data have been produced, implications are not understood. We examined the polymorphims of Odh in several species of bivalves and gastropods, and the kinetic properties (apparent Km) of the different isozymes in the scallop Euvola ziczac that indicates an apparent case of overdominance of the heterozygous individuals. The question "which of the two hypothesis is correct" has shifted with time to "how much influence did each factor have in the maintenance of genetic variation".

Obtencion de cromosomas de vieiras a partir de ovocitos / Chromosomes isolation from scallop oocytes

Se describe una metodología para la obtención de cromosomas a partir de ovocitos no fecundados de las vieiras Euvola ziczac y Nodipecten nodosus. Esta metodología resuelve los problemas debidos a la alta concentración de material de reserva en los ovocitos, la condensación excesiva de los cromosomas y la pérdida de material biológico durante su paso de una solución a outra. Es aplicable y adaptable a otros bivalvos.