Foliose Dictyoceratida of the Australian Great Barrier Reef III. Preliminary Electrophoretic Systematics

Abstract. Techniques of starch-gel electrophoresis were applied in a taxonomic assessment of a difficult group of dictyoceratid sponges. A phylogenetic tree derived from the resultant electrophoretic characters agreed well with a recent taxonomic revision of this group produced in a companion study. However, this must be seen as a preliminary result, as the electrophoretic character set was restricted to only three enzyme systems due to the extensive effects of a nonspecific enzyme which precluded the effective interpretation of most other enzymes assayed. This non-specific enzyme may be linked to a highly developed relationship between this group of sponges and symbiotic cyanobacteria.