Abstract:
Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) germplasm, comprising of 116 accessions was characterized using Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) of seed storage proteins. The germplasm was acquired from different countries of the world. Total seed proteins were separated through electrophoresis polyacrylamide gels using standard protocols. Eighteen (60%) of the protein bands detected were polymorphic, the rest being monomorphic. Eight bands (14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24 and 25) were more than 80% common in all accessions. Similarity coefficients among the accessions ranged from 0.00 to 1.00. Accessions 16327 and 26752 were the most divergent genotypes having maximum dissimilarity with all the ther accessions used. Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic averages (UPGMA) was used which is based on dissimilarity matrix. The dendrogram obtained separated all accessions into four main clusters (I, II,
III and IV) and two independent individual genotypes. Four major clusters comprised of 23, 75, 8 and 8 accessions, respectively. This technique did not reveal genetic variability of significant value in safflower genotypes, hence advanced molecular and biochemical markers are recommended for further studies. This study will be helpful for the future breeding program of safflower accessions.
