Using Electrophoretic Techniques in Varietal Identification, Biosystematic Analysis, Phylogenetic Relations and Genetic Resources Management

Personal experience gained with Lotus, Amaranthus, Medicago, and Vicia species; and flax and cotton cultivars led to conclusion that polyacrylamide gel techniques are a valuable tool to identify species and cultivars. This identification is very important for plant breeders, certification authorities and also in genetic resources management. Polyacrylamide gel techniques allow us to: 1) identify variation among the taxa of each species; 2) screen the purity of the ever expanding number of cultivars; 3) verify whether or not two or more morphologically identical accession in the collection were also electrophoretically identical; and 4) exploit the important traits of landraces and wild relatives to provide increasing crop production and stabilizing yield.