Antigenic and size differences between somatic and testicular cytochromes c.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) of somatic (cs) and testicular (ct) cytochromes of rat, mouse, rabbit, and beef with rabbit anti-rat cyt ct antibody exhibited two different antigenic profiles, indicating the presence of two different antigenic structure between cyt ct and cs. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of cyt c showed that the molecular size of rat, rabbit and beef cyt ct is slightly smaller than that of their cyt cs. However, the electrophoretic mobility of mouse cyt ct is almost identical to that of mouse cyt cs, but slightly slower than that of rat cyt ct. These results indicate that mouse and rat cyt ct are different despite the identical amino acid sequences for both rat and mouse cyt cs.