The Distribution of the Enzyme Arginase in the Tissues of Selected Cichlidae Species: Tilapia zillii, Sarotherodon galilaeus and Oreochromis niloticus

Abstract

The paper reports the tissue distribution of the enzyme arginase in three different Cichlids: Tilapia zilli, Sarotherodon galilaeus and Oreochromis niloticus, from the Aiba and Osinmo reservoirs, located in the southwestern Nigeria. The tissues of S. galilaeus showed very high activity of arginase as compared with the other two species. The liver of O. niloticus and the gut of T. zillii showed very high activity of arginase in the Osinmo reservoir. The high arginase activity observed in the tissues of these organisms is attributed to ureotelism and is similar to the result obtained for tilapia, Alcolapia grahami, from lake Magadi, Kenya.