Protein variation and taxonomy in some genera of the family scincidae (reptilia)‎ in Egypt

Abstract EN

Electrophoretically demonstrable variation in 24 enzymatic and non-enzymatic proteins encoded by 37 structural gene loci was ana- lyzed for Chalcides ocellatut, Chalcides sepsoides, Eumeces schnei- deri, Mabuya quinquetaeniala and Scincus scincus, representing four genera of skinks common in Egypt.

Of these 37 loci, 32 (86.5%) were polymorphic and 5 (13.5%) were monomorphic.

The mean proportion of alleles detected per polymorphic locus (A) was 1.37 (range 2 to 7), The mean proportion of heterozygosity per locus (HL) was 0.14.

In terms of genetic similarity (S), the genera Eumec- es and Scincus were genetically the most alike (S=0.825).

The genus Chalcides was genetically more similar to the genera Eumeces and Scincus (S=0/781) than to the genus Mabuya (S=0>742).

Hence, ge- nus Mabuya was genetically more remote from genus Chalcides (S=0.734).

With respect to polymorphism (P) and heterozygosity (HL), the genus Chalcides was genetically the most variable (P=34% and HL=15%), while the genus Mabuya was the lowest in degree of genetic variation (HL=13% and P=27%).

In between, the genera Eumeces and Scincus were similar in level of heterozygosity (HL=14%) but they varied in the level of polymorphism (P=29% and 30%, respectively).

The differences in levels of genetic variabil- ity were attributed to the variation in degrees of vagility and in- breeding.