Vegetos

Abstract

Seed storage proteins of plants are specifically synthesized only in seeds and serve as the nutrient reservoir, explored during germination process. Being coded by different gene families, the seed storage proteins represent a significant amount of polymorphism, which has been explored to investigate genetic diversity among different plant genotypes. Here, we have fractionated the seed storage proteins from 13 maize lines, on the basis of their differential solubility, and have analysed the polymorphism of each fraction. Through these polymorphic bands, all the lines used in the present study could be distinguished from each other. Furthermore, the results obtained on the basis of distance matrix based on seed storage protein polymorphism was found to support the heterosis for grain yield data, when these lines were hybridized in line X tester manner. Thus, the present study documents a relatively simple method of estimating the diversity among different maize genotypes.