ISHS Acta Horticulturae 218: XII African Symposium on Horticultural Crops
ELECTROPHORESIS AS AN AID IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF VARIOUS SPECIES AND CULTIVARS OF GRAIN AMARANTHS |
| Authors: | S. Gudu, V.K. Gupta |
| Abstract:
Starch gel electrophoresis was conducted on four enzymes (peroxidase, esterase, acid phosphatase and leucine aminopeptidase) from the twelve cultivars of Amaranthus caudatus, A. hypochondriacus and A. cruentus. The best zymogram was obtained when plants were 60 days old. At this stage, on the basis of peroxidase, A. cruentus could be identified because it did not have anodic bands A3 and A4. Band A3 was specific to A. caudatus whereas A. hypochondriacus could be distinguished from the rest because it did not have band A3 but had only one light-staining cathodic band (C1). On the basis of esterase, each species could be distinguished as follows: band A4 was specific to A. cruentus, band A5 specific to A. hypochondriacus and bands A8 and A9 coalesced, and dark-staining specific to A. caudatus. On the basis of leucine aminopeptidase, A. cruentus could be distinguished because it produced this enzyme earlier than other species and had a greater quantity of the enzyme. Acid phosphatase was not useful for the purpose of this study. The zymograms of leucine aminopeptidase and peroxidase showed some close banding homology between A. hypochondriacus and A. caudatus. The esterase zymogram, however, showed some close banding homology between A. hypochondriacus and A. cruentus. | |
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files) | |
