Diversity of High Molecular Weight Glutenin Subunits (HMW-GS) in Wild Emmer

Genetic diversity of high molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW GS) encoded by the Glu A1 and Glu B1 loci were investigated using one dimensional sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in 172 wild emmer from Israel. 19 allelic variations were found at Glu B1 locus, 8 alleles detected have not been found before by Payne and Lawrence(1983)in hexaploid wheat. A high degree of variation was evident for the HMW GS in wild emmer. The distribution of alleles appeared to be non random,the frequency of 17+18 was 29.6%,which was the highest of all, 3 special types for wild emmer were also identified, while four allelic variants were detected for the Glu A1 locus, one of them (1 *)has not been previously described, which enhance the genetic variability available to improve the industrial quality of wheats and some of them may facilitate basic research on the relationship of industrial quality with HMW glutenin subunit and could be used to broaden the genetic basis for wheat breeding.