CONTROL OF ENDOSPERM PROTEINS IN TRITICUM AESTIVUM (var. CHINESE SPRING) AND AEGILOPS UMBELLULATA BY HOMOEOLOGOUS GROUP 1 CHROMOSOMES

John W. S. Brown ¹, Roger J. Kemble ¹, Colin N. Law ¹, and Richard B. Flavell ¹

¹ Dept. of Cytogenetics, Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge CB2 2LQ, England

The genetic control of major wheat endosperm proteins by homoeologous group 1 chromosomes has been studied by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The control of at least 15 distinct protein subunits or groups of protein subunits has been allocated to chromosomes 1A, 1B and 1D of Chinese Spring wheat from the analysis of grains of aneuploid genotypes. In addition, six protein subunits have been shown to be controlled by chromosome 1C^u of the related species, Aegilops umbellulata, from studies of wheat lines carrying disomic substitutions of 1C^u chromosomes. On the basis of protein subunit patterns, chromosome 1C^u is more closely related to chromosome 1D of wheat than to chromosomes 1A or 1B.