High molecular weight glutenin subunits of current bread wheats grown in Iran

Variation of high molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) at the Glu-1 loci was studied using SDS-PAGE method in 43 advanced lines or cultivars commonly grown in Iran. Fourteen alleles and 21 allelic compositions were detected. Among the 43 bread wheats analysed only five showed a unique HMW-GS composition. The most frequent HMW-GS patterns were 2*, 7+8, 2+12 and 2*, 17+18, 2+12 which were observed in 13 and six cultivars, respectively. In the remainings, each two to three lines or cultivars showed a common HMW-GS pattern. Therefore, allelic variation at Glu-1 loci is of limited value for cultivar identification compared with loci controlling gliadins. Seven cultivars were observed to consist of two to three biotypes with different alleles. In cultivar Mahdavi a biotype showed inactivity at the Glu-B1 locus. An already reported rare subunit pair '2***+12' at Glu-D1 locus was found in cultivar Kavir. The results of scoring cultivars for their quality based on the HMW-GS compositions with an average score of eight, was generally good. Cultivars Inia, Tajan, and advanced lines N-75-11 and N-75-15 showed quality score equal to 10, whereas Alamoot and C-75-5 showed quality scores equal to five. The quality of former and latter lines and cultivars were considered highest and lowest, respectively. The results obtained in this study are useful in breeding programs to improve bread making quality, developing uniformity and improving heterogeneous cultivars by means of selection of the best genotypes.