Variation of the High Molecular Weight Glutenin Subunit (HMW-GS) in Iranian Accessions of Aegilpos crassa

One hundred and twenty Iranian accessions of Aegilops crassa with origin from different geographical areas of Iran, were evaluated for variation in high molecular weight glutenin subunit (HMW-GS) composition. The results showed different banding patterns between hexa (6x) and tetra-ploid (4x) as well as within different ploidy accessions. Eleven allelic variants were observed in Glu- Dcr1 locus with the highest (30.90%) and the lowest allele (0.5%) frequency in 3+12 and 2+10 variants, respectively. Moreover, six new alleles likely belonging to M genome and one new allele belonging to D genome (between 12.1 and T2 alleles) were observed. The first two principal coordinate analyses (PCOs) along with cluster analysis could not clearly separate accessions according to geographical origin. Results revealed that the evaluated Iranian accessions of Aegilops crassa formed an interesting source of favourable glutenin subunits that might be very desirable in breeding activities for improving bread wheat quality.