Genetic Variation and Geographical Diversity for Seed Storage Proteins of Seventeen Durum Wheat Populations Collected in Algeria

Abstract

Variation in the HMW and LMW glutenin subunits of a collection of 856 accessions of botanic durum wheat collected in Algeria and divided a priori according to their agronomical and morphological traits in 17 populations were analyzed using SDS-PAGE. Among the 16 alleles identified at the Glu-1 loci, two were new. The first named Glu-B1i1 encoding for two bands located between 17 and 18 which was assigned the nomenclature 171 and 181. The other named Glu-B1e1 codes two bands similar to 20x and 20y but with faster mobility, which were named 20x1-20y1. At Glu-3 and Glu-2 loci, 19 alleles were identified, where the allele named Glu-B3ab (encoding for subunits 2-8-9-13-16) was considered as new. Global genetic diversity index (H) was relatively high (0.34). A final core collection of 21 accessions was selected. All the different geographical areas and the allelic diversity at the Glu-1, Glu-2 and Glu-3 polymorphic loci were represented in this core which represents a minimum of wheat Algerian genetic resources that could be used for dedicated breeding programs.