title: Comparative levels of muscle glycolytic enzymes in mammals, fish, echinoderm and molluscs.
abstract: 1. Levels of glycolytic enzymes were determined in terms of units of enzyme/mg protein in rat striated muscle, carp lateral muscle, holothuria longitudinal muscle of the body wall, and a snail foot muscle. 2. An attempt has been made to correlate levels of glycolytic enzymes as a parameter to establish a "biochemical distance" at molecular level and correlate this with the phylogenetic position in animals sufficiently separated in the animal tree of evolution. 3. The possibility of a peculiar kinetic behaviour of the glycolytic pathway in each muscle tissue studied, has been analyzed as the profiles of the ratios of pairs of enzymes bearing a substrate-product dependence. 4. A possible "futile synthesis" of some glycolytic enzymes, such as FDP-aldolase in the case of fish muscle, is proposed.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004447:Echinodermata / Q000378:metabolism*; D005399:Fishes / Q000378:metabolism*; D006019:Glycolysis; D008322:Mammals / Q000378:metabolism*; D008974:Mollusca / Q000378:metabolism*; D009132:Muscles / Q000201:enzymology*