A comparative study of some soluble proteins of the genus Diplodus (Sparidae: Teleostei)

1. Soluble eye lens and muscle proteins of four species of the genus Diplodus (D. annularis, D. sargus, D. vulgaris, D. puntazzo) were analyzed. 2. Species-specific electrophoretic and isoelectric focusing patterns were found in both proteins system. 3. Comparison of the soluble proteins of the eye lens and of the soluble proteins of the white skeletal muscle of the four species gave evidence that D. annularis and D. sargus are closely related and that they are only distantly related to D. vulgaris. 4. Comparison also showed the relative taxonomic distance of D. puntazzo and, thus, the early detachment of this species from a presumptive common ancestral lineage