GENEALOGICAL IDENTIFICATION OF HEXAPLOID TRITORDEUM BY ELECTROPHORETIC SEPARATION OF ENDOSPERM STORAGE PROTEINS

Hexaploid Tritordeum (x Tritordeum Ascherson et Graebner) has been ana lyzed by SDS-PAGE, to test the efficiency of the method for confirming the parents of different lines, and for unequivocally discriminating between the lines. The results clearly show that endosperm storage pro teins from both parents (durum wheat - Triticum turgidum conv. durum D esf. em. M.K. - and Hordeum chilense Roem. et Schulz.) are expressed i n the endosperm of the amphiploid between them. Although the spectra o f proteins from the parental species overlap on the gel, there are suf ficient number of bands with distinct electrophoretic mobilities to id entify unambiguously their parental origin. Furthermore, in the six li nes of tritordeum analyzed, obtained from crosses between three access ions of H. chilense and four cultivars or lines of wheat, there was su fficient polymorphism amongst the parents, particularly amongst the H. chilense accessions, to enable both aims of the project to be met, th at is, to confirm the genealogy of each tritordeum, and to discriminat e between different lines. This study provides the basis of future inv estigation on the relationship between bread-making quality in tritord eum and the allelic composition of storage proteins.