ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the taxonomic use of electrophoresis of whole-cell proteins of fungi, excluding reports on enzyme and isozyme electrophoresis and immunoelectrophoresis. Protein patterns obtained through electrophoresis are not necessarily final and comparable and they are largely dependent on the analytical techniques used. Fungal proteins commonly analyzed by electrophoresis for taxonomic purposes are water- or buffer-soluble native proteins or detergent-solubilized and denatured proteins in sodium dodecylsulphate which have been extracted from fungal biomass produced in liquid culture medium. Extraction and fractionation of proteins in native conditions is critical due to subunit aggregation, disulfite bridging, carbohydrate binding, phosphorylation, acetylation, proteolysis, etc. Anamorphic genera are assigned to the teleomorphic family or order to which they are definitely or presumably linked. The general distribution of the anamorphic Rhodotorula species clusters among the teleomorphic Rhodosporidium clusters, supported a close mutual relationship.
