Investigations on the relations within the family papilionaceae on the basis of electrophoretic banding patterns

Gel electrophoretic investigations were made on the seed albumins of several members of the family Papilionaceae. Relationships were found with taxa of a lower order i.e. between mutants, varieties and subspecies. More distantly related ones, for example species of the same genus or species of different genera, did not show similarities. Thus, it was concluded that the albumin banding pattern is only suitable for studying phylogenetic and taxonomic problems if the material under investigation is not too distantly related.

ELECTROPHORETIC PATTERNS OF OAT PROLAMINES AND SPECIES RELATIONSHIPS IN AVENA

Starch gel electrophoretic studies on seed prolamines of 17 different di-, tetra-, and hexaploid Avena species were undertaken to determine species relationships and the evolutionary process of the polyploids. Significant intraspecific variation was observed. Electrophoregrams of each species were obtained by superposing all the bands found in the same species and in total, 17 bands were observed. Clear differences were found between species in their patterns, which allowed determination of the bands specific to three genomes (A, C and D). Like the diploids, the tetraploids can be divided into two groups on the basis of electrophoretic patterns: A. barbata and A. magna-A. murphyi. It is evident that A. magna-murphyi group is derived from both the A and C genome species of diploids while A. barbata is derived from the A genome species only. The similarity between A. magna and A. murphyi was also confirmed. The hexaploids were derived from A. magna-murphyi group and a D genome ancestor although the last one is not discovered yet.

EVOLUTION IN THE GENUS AVENA: INHERITANCE OF DIFFERENT FORMS OF RIBULOSE DIPHOSPHATE CARBOXYLASE

Disc electrophoresis of ribulose diphosphate carboxylases from Avena species in polyacrylamide gels of varying concentrations reveals the presence of two distinct forms of the enzyme. One migrates faster than the other and is found exclusively in species possessing the A genome. The other is confined to the C genome species (A. pilosa, A. ventricosa, A. clauda). The association of another characteristic of this enzyme (presence of stromacentres in the chloroplasts) with the A genome was reported previously. Observations on the recently described species A. prostrata, A. canariensis, A. damascena, and A. murphyi show that they all possess stromacentres, confirming reports that they all contain the A genome. Examination of amphiploid hybrids (from crosses between various diploid species and A. sativa) has shown that the mobility character is inherited maternally, and is located on the chloroplast genome. All these hybrids have the A genome and all have stromacentres. The results are discussed in the light of recent findings on the structure and synthesis of this enzyme. Consideration of the species distribution of the different forms of carboxylase places certain restrictions on the possible evolutionary paths from diploids to tetraploids and hexaploids.