Department of Seed science and Technology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad-580 005, India.
To ascertain the genetic purity of the seeds of hybrid cotton, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) of soluble seed proteins as well as some of the enzymes was conducted. Of these PAGE of the soluble proteins and esterase were found to be more useful than that of peroxidase and glutamate dehydrogenase isozymes in differentiating the hybrids from their respective parents. Banding patterns of the hybrids and their respective male parents were similar. However, the banding patterns of most of the hybrids could be easily distinguished from those of their respective female parents, which is of practical importance. The electrophoresis technique can be complementary, if not a substitute, to field test for the determination of genetic purity of seed.
