Starch-gel electrophoretic analysis was carried out on Hb's from 12 species of salmonoid fishes.
The Hb patterns were independent of sex or of the place of catch. There was some dependence on age. On the whole, the salmonoid Hb's showed many more components (8 ?? 14), compared to other kinds of fish examined so far. In spite of some common features, the salmonid Hb patterns were all species-specific, allowing one to be distinguished from the other.
Three species of Salvelinus fish, brook trout, “amemasu”, and Dolly Varden, showed fairly similar Hb patterns, while rainbow and brown trouts, both from Salmo, showed patterns fairly different from each other. In Oncorhynchus, remarkable resemblance was noted in Hb pattern between chum salmon and “himemasu” and between “sakuramasu” and “biwamasu”, whereas pink salmon Hb was somewhat unique. “Yamame” and “hommasu” had almost the same pattern as “sakuramasu”. Hybrid individuals (F₁) between chum salmon and “himemasu” showed Hb patterns, comparable to the parental ones, or having one or two additional bands.