Study of the LMW glutenin composition of some old Hungarian wheat cultivars using capillary electrophoresis

The LMW glutenin composition of nine old Hungarian wheats (several lines pe r variety), and one Canadian wheat was studied using one-step, one-dimensio nal SDS-PAGE (Gupta and MacRitchie, 1991), after which a method was develop ed for the determination of wheat LMW glutenin patterns using SDS capillary electrophoresis (CE). In both cases the samples were prepared as described by Gupta and MacRitchie (1991), with some modifications in the case of CE. Both methods were used to analyse the homogeneity of the varieties, and th e electropherograms obtained with the two methods were compared. It was fou nd that the new method based on CE was suitable for the demonstration of di fferences and similarities between the wheat LMW glutenins. The method can be used to reveal differences not only between varieties (e.g. between the Hungarian variety Bankuti 1205 and the Canadian variety Marquis), but also between the genotypes making up a variety population (e.g. the sublines of Bankuti 1205). The results indicate that CE is a satisfactory alternative t o the traditional PAGE method for the determination of the LMW glutenin sub units of wheat varieties.