Abstract: The polymorphism of gliadin and glutelin in 24 species in Elytrigia was studied by using A-PAGE and SDS-PAGE. With reference to Chinese Spring, cluster analysis was applied in all the tested materials based on the stripe migration distance and stripe polymorphism on electrophoretography. Different electrophoresis patterns of gliadin and glutelin appeared in all the 24 tested materials, and 83 gliadin and 53 glutelin bands were extracted, which indicated 100% polymorphism. The Elytrigia species could be an excellent germplasm source for improving the wheat proteins. Furthermore, the number of bands increased with increasing chromosome number within the same genome. The gliadin and glutelin patterns from the 24 Elytrigia species showed differences, which could be used as a fingerprint for identifying different species from Elytrigia. The 24 species were divided into six groups with 0.66 genetic similarity coefficient for gliadin, and species carrying E and St genes had closer phylogenetic relationship. However, the 24 species were divided into 4 groups with 0.62 genetic similarity coefficient for glutelin. Although the genome composition of Et. pachynera is unknown, the cluster results implied that it is an allopolyploid species.

Key words: Elytrigia, gliadin, glutelin, polymorphism