ISOZYME VARIATION AMONG AMARANTHUS CULTIVARS

Electrophoretic variation studies for esterase (Est), peroxidase (Per) , phosphoglucoisomerase (Pgi) and phosphoglucomutase (Pgm) were conduc ted for seven Amaranthus populations, namely, Jumla, F(1)Jumla, popula tion 1023 (all A. hypchondriacus), population A-1113 (A. caudatus), Vi etmeyer (A. cruentus) Ex-Ngugi (A. tricolor) and Pigweed (A. hybridus) . There was variation among the cultivars for Est. banding pattern. Th ough there was heterozygousity for some allozymes, homozygousity was p revalent for Est. allozymes. Peroxides and phosphoglucomutase showed l ess variation with a high degree of homozygousity. All A. hypochondria cus populations had similar alleles for Per and Pgm allozymes. Heteroz ygousity was noted for one Per isozyme in population A-1113. One of th e Pgi isozymes showed homozygousity while for the other isozyme there was heterozygousity in all. cultivars except in Ex-Ngugi and Pigweed.