Genetic variability in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) of Pakistan based on polymorphism for high molecular weight glutenin subunits

Variation in bread wheat including pre and post green revolutions varieties of Pakistan along with landraces was investigated for high molecular weight Glutenin subunits (HMW Gs) encoded at three genes (Glu-A1, Glu-B1, Glu-D1) with SDS-PAGE. The germplasm was diverse and unique on the basis of HMW Gs compositions and out of 14 alleles detected at all the Glu-1 loci, three belonged to Glu-A1, nine to Glu-B1 and two to Glu-D1 locus. High variation was observed in the landraces and higher gene diversity was observed between the populations as compared to the gene diversity within populations, whereas a reverse pattern of gene diversity was observed when populations were pooled across the region (higher within the regions than between the regions). A lack of relationship between the HMW Gs diversity and the altitude of collection site was observed. A data base has been generated in this study which could be expanded/exploited for cultivar development or management of gene bank.