Protein patterns of wheat grains with phylogenetic inferences

A comparative study of total grain protein was carried out by sodium dodecyle sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) to characterise the differences between and within two species of wheat (Triticum aestivum and Triticum durum) represented by 12 cultivars. The densitometric profile data of the polypeptides showed an obvious variation in the number and position of bands from one cultivar to another. There were some bands in common between both species (103, 85, 70, 50, 46.9, 45, 40, 38, 34.1, 33, 31, 29, 28, 21, 20, 18, 14KD), while there were also some bands which characterise each species. Cladistic analysis showed that the four cultivars belonging to species T. aestivum/I> separated earlier in evolutionary history, and can be recognized from the rest of the cultivars which belong to species T. durum. KEY WORDS: Triticum aestivum,Triticum durum, protein polymorphism, electrophoresis, SDS-PAGE, cladistic analysis Egyptian Journal of Biology Vol.4 2002: 31-3