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Classification and Pedigree Verification of Tall Fescue Cultivars Utilizing the Prolamin Seed Protein Fraction

Dep. of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences, Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071
Dep. of Plant Science and Mechanized Agriculture, California State Univ., Fresno, CA 93740 (current address: USDA-ARS, Natl. Forage Seed Production Res. Ctr., Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR 97331)
Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611

^* Corresponding author.

Several techniques based on the electrophoretic separation of seed proteins have been developed that can be used to detect differences among cultivars of crop species. Little work has been done to statistically interpret these differences or to relate them to actual pedigrees. In this work, 16 cultivars of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea, Schreb.) have been distinguished based on qualitative and/or quantitative differences in alcohol-soluble prolamin seed protein banding patterns. Proteins were extracted from seed flour with an ethanolic solution containing dithiothreitol and polyvinylpyrrolidone. This improved the resolution of polypeptides using an acidic polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis system. The mobility of polypeptides relative to bovine serum albumin (Rm) and the staining intensity (band density) were determined for each cultivar. A series of cluster Q-analyses were performed on the data as a statistical approach to definitively show relationships among cultivars. Only nonassociated independent bands were used in the analysis. After the initial grouping of cultivars, a subset of nine cultivars that were not separated by the initial Q-analysis was re-examined using those independent bands that were excluded from the initial analysis. The resulting clusters of cultivars from the two analyses compared closely with the known pedigrees of the cultivars. Use of cluster analysis of the prolamin polypeptides should be applicable to the development of databases for plant cultivar identification and variety protection.

Received for publication June 24, 1988.