Drosophila lactate dehydrogenase: developmental aspects.

Partially purified lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) from third-instar larvae displays two bands (one major and one minor) on polyacrylamide gels. Analogous preparations from pupae and adults exhibit three LDH-staining bands (one major and two minor) in a similar pattern. The migration of the major band is similar for larvae, pupae, and adults, while the two minor LDH bands of pupae and adults migrate more slowly than the minor larval band. It has been shown that larval LDH incubated with beta-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide exhibits two additional minor bands with an electrophoretic mobility similar to that of the minor bands of both pupae and adults. The intensity of the minor larval LDH band (exhibited also by untreated preparations) is drastically reduced. This fact indicates that the life-cycle stage-dependent LDH isozymic distribution is possibly due to a posttranslational effect(s). Highly purified LDH from larvae, pupae, or adults, obtained by an affinity chromatography procedure, displays just one dispersed band, located in the area between the band 5 and the band 6 exhibited by crude extract preparations. These data, in combination with the lack of difference in catalytic properties among enzymes from larvae, pupae, and adults, suggest that LDH synthesis is controlled by the same single structural gene at all developmental stages.