Identification of discrepancies in grain quality and grain protein composition through avenin proteins of oat after an effort to increase protein content

Background: Oat prolamin (avenin) is a family of proteins that contain several polymorphic components. The highinterspecific variability of avenin among cultivars, electrophoretic patterns have been used for grain protein comparisonand species relationships. Therefore, the present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of environment onavenin constitution following an effort to increase protein content of oat using different approaches.Results: The avenin electrophoretic patterns of 25 samples resulting from 20 oat cultivars and 5 mutated oat linesgrown or developed in different fields and greenhouses were compared. Quantification of total proteins and SDSPAGEanalysis of avenin protein extracts were carried out. Different pattern of avenin allele in electrophoretic gelallowed the comparison within and between groups. This analysis shows that the cultivars obtained from Swedishfields had differences in the number of alleles compared with the parental cultivar, so were not stable across sites. Thestudy revealed that oats treated with nitrogen and the selected mutated lines showed increase in protein concentration,with consistent avenin loci to the parental line, so these lines are now being used as potential candidates fordeveloping high-protein oat lines in the future.Conclusions: Our results provide useful information, on the stability of modifications, for breeders aiming to increasingthe content and nutritional value of oat protein. The study will increase our knowledge in the stability of differentmodifications and thus to accordingly select oat lines with stable and improved nutritional values.Keywords: Avenin, Mutation, Nitrogen, Geographical location, Electrophoresi