Variety‐Specific Electrophoretic Variants of Four Soybean Enzymes¹

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible use of electrophoresis in soybean ( Glycine max (L.) Merr.) variety identification. Seeds from 113 commercial soybean varieties were examined with polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis. Distinct variety‐specific electrophoretic zymogams were observed for acid phosphatase (AP), alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), amylase (AM), tetrazolium oxidase (TO). The varieties displayed one of three banding patterns (zymograms) for each of the four enzymes. In the 4,411 seeds tested for these four enzymes, only four seeds yielded zymograms which were atypical of their respective variety. An additional nine seeds were probably of heterozygous genotype based upon the observed zymograms. Thus, the electrophoretic zymograms were stable varietal characteristics and could be used in varietal identification. Varietal pedigrees constructed from the available records indicated that variant dectrophoretic zymogram patterns were heritable, and that all variants could be traced back to an area of origin.