Identification of melon cultivars by gel and capillary electrophoresis

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) in conjunction with sodium dodecyl sulphate- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was used to identify nine cul tivars of melons. The identification was based on qualitative differences s hown by seed storage proteins (globulins) separated by the two techniques. Although CE showed good reproducibility, it failed to identify all of the c ultivars examined. The use of CE in conjunction with SDS-PAGE increased the possibility of cultivar identification. The inability of these techniques to discriminate between all of the nine cultivars examined might be due to the rather conservative nature of the globulins extracted from the same mem bers of the Cucurbitaceae family.