The high molecular weight glutenin subunit composition in old and modern bread wheats cultivated in Iran

Abstract

All current and old wheat cultivars grown in Iran were characterised by sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The high-molecular-weight glutenin subunit (HMW-GS) banding patterns for each cultivar were assigned a Glu-1 quality score, a theoretical quality score based on Payne’s Glu-1 quality assignments. At the Glu-A1 loci, HMW-GS subunit compositions N, 7 + 8, 2 + 12 and 2*, 7 + 8, 2 + 12 were found to be predominant being expressed in 24 and 15 cultivars, respectively, out of 95. Eighteen different alleles were identified for the 3 loci studied: Glu-A1 (3), Glu-B1 (9), and Glu-D1 (6). The glutenin quality scores of Iranian wheat ranged from 4 to 10, with an average of 7.4. It was found that some cultivars were heterogeneous in HMW-GS composition. In cv. Cooleh, only one glutenin subunit at the Glu-B1 locus was present. HMW-GS 2*** + 12′ was found in 6 cultivars and biotypes. The results obtained here describing the allelic composition of bread wheat commonly grown in Iran may be useful in wheat breeding programs selecting for good quality parameters.