Saharan wheats have been studied particularly from a botanical viewpoint. Genotypic identification, classification and genetic diversity studies to date were essentially based on the morphology of the spike and grain. For this, the allelic variation at the glutenin loci was studied in a set of Saharan bread and durum wheats from Algerian oases where this crop has been traditionally cultivated. The high molecular weight and low molecular weight glutenin subunit composition of 40 Saharan bread and 30 durum wheats was determined by SDS-PAGE. In Saharan bread wheats 32 alleles at the six glutenin loci were detected, which in combination resulted in 36 different patterns including 17 for HMW and 23 for LMW glutenin subunits. For the Saharan durum wheats, 29 different alleles were identified for the five glutenin loci studied. Altogether, 29 glutenin patterns were detected, including 13 for HMW-GS and 20 for LMW-GS. Three new alleles were found in Saharan wheats, two in durum wheat at the Glu-B1 and Glu-B3 loci, and one in bread wheat at the Glu-B1 locus. The mean indices of genetic variation at the six loci in bread wheat and at the five loci in durum wheat were 0.59 and 0.63, respectively, showing that Saharan wheats were more diverse. This information could be useful to select Saharan varieties with improved quality and also as a source of genes to develop new lines when breeding for quality.
Genetic diversity of high and low molecular weight glutenin subunits in Saharan bread and durum wheats from Algerian oases