IDENTIFICATION OF TALL FESCUE CULTIVARS BY SODIUM DODECYL-SULFATE POLYACRYLAMIDE-GEL ELECTROPHORESIS OF SEED PROTEINS

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinaceae Schreb.) is a cool-season grass used widely for turf and forage. There is a steady increase in the number of new cultivars of tall fescue that are released through the effort o f plant breeders. Most of these cultivars are closely related in pedig ree and are similar phenotypically. As a result, identification of tal l fescue cultivars has become increasingly cumbersome. The purpose of this study was to develop an electrophoretic procedure which will aid in routine identification of different cultivars of tall fescue, We is olated salt-soluble globulins and alcohol-soluble prolamines from nine tall fescue cultivars and resolved them by sodium dodecyl sulfate pol yacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Salt soluble globulins wer e very similar in their polypeptide profiles and hence offered little promise in cultivar identification, However, SDS-PAGE analysis of seed prolamines effectively differentiated the tall fescue cultivars on th e basis of presence and absence of unique polypeptides. Subtle differe nces in the banding patterns of prolamines of closely related cultivar s were enhanced by computer assisted densitometer scans. The results o f this study indicate that SDS-PAGE analysis of alcohol-soluble prolam ines can be used as a rapid and reliable method for identification of tall fescue cultivars.