Comparing Lolium inter-specific hybrids and their parents using seed storage proteins electrophoresis

Inter-specific hybrids of Lolium with various capabilities provide possibilities to integrate suitable characteristics into a cultivated variety of the genus. Baring this objective in mind, inter-specific hybrids had been produced which are investigated in this research. Four genotypes of the inter-specific hybrids between Lolium perenne and L. rigidum, and their parents were investigated for their protein profiles using seed storage protein electrophoresis. They were compared to make sure their hybrid originality as well as investigating their similarity to their parents. SDS-PAGE method of electrophoresis was used to provide the profile of the seed storage proteins. Presence or absence of the protein bands in the profile column of the genotypes were scored as one and zero respectively. The provided data were analyzed by cluster analysis. A dendrogram produced by the analysis, was used along with the proteins profile for classifying and estimating the hybrids and their parents similarities. Twenty protein bands were observed in the profile of the studied genotypes in which there were differences between the hybrids and their parents based on limited number of the bands. There were also differences on thickness and stain intensity of the protein bands of the studied genotypes, which might be due to differences in gene expression of parents and progenies. On the whole the profile revealed remarkable differences between the parents and progenies as well as approving the hybrid origins of the progeny genotypes.