96 BIOCHEMICAL SYSTEMATICS 



particularly in the genus Acacia (Gmelin, 1959; Virtanen and Gmelin, 

 1959; Gmelin et al, 1959; Gmelin and Hietala, 1960). New amino 

 acids have been identified in Lathyrus species (Bell, 1961); in Reseda 

 (Larsen and Kjaer, 1962); in Allium (Virtanen and Matikkala, 1960); 

 in Ecballium (Gray and Fowden, 1961); in crown gall tissue (Biemann 

 et al, 1960); and in a red alga (Kuriyama et al, 1960. Even a 

 selenium-containing amino acid has been identified in Astragalus 

 (Trelease et al, 1960). These amino acids fall into several different 

 chemical sub-types. 



Although at present, the majority of these newly discovered 

 non-protein amino acids are known to occur in only a few plants, 

 Fowden (1962) has noted that one still cannot detect trace amounts, 

 and it may be that their distributions are far more extensive than now 

 suspected. Steward et al (1955) stated that eighty-one ninhydrin 

 reactive substances found in the non-protein portion of various plant 

 extracts did not correspond to any of the known amino acids. 



Systematic studies involving amino acids 



One of the first taxonomic studies employing chromatography 

 of amino acids was that of Buzzati-Traverso and Rechnitzer (1953). 

 In this brief paper the authors compared the chromatographic pat- 

 terns of fish muscle protein hydrolysates from different species. The 

 amino acids themselves were not identified, and the chromatograms 

 showed few spots, but it was evident that differences in the patterns 

 occurred. It is strange, in view of the general occurrence of twenty 

 amino acids in protein that, in protein hydrolysates, many of the 

 twenty amino acids were missing. According to the authors the 

 amino acid patterns of species regarded as more closely related 

 by other criteria were more alike chromatographically, and they 

 further maintained that stocks from geographical races of the 

 same species could sometimes be distinguished. Although the authors 

 forecast wide use of chromatography in population and genetic studies, 

 little work of this type on fish has appeared subsequently. Vismanathan 

 and Pillai (1956) repeated, essentially, the work of Buzzati-Traverso 

 and Rechnitzer, in a study of sardines, but the results contributed 

 nothing to the systematics of the group. 



Another paper by Buzzati-Traverso (1953) has gained con- 

 siderable attention. The work is not primarily systematic and does 

 not even treat exclusively the amino acids. However, imphcations of 

 the work, if substantiated, bear directly upon the sensitivity of the 

 chromatographic method and indirectly upon apphcations of similar 



