Division of Genetics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi-12
A study on species relationships in tetraploid Triticums was carried out by means of electrophoretic analysis of seed extracts of T. turgidum, T. durum, T. dicoccum, T. pyramidale, T. polonicum, T. ispahanicum, T. carthlicum, T. timopheevi and T. araraticum. The extracts resolved themselves into three to six bands in β zone. Two of these bands were homologous in all these nine species. Regarding the other bands a few were shared by more than one species while a few were characteristic of individual species. In general, all the species represented an inter-related group. In spite of the genetic divergence brought about by hybrid sterility between the timopheevi icmplex and the eest to fhe tetraploid Triticums, there appears to be appreciable affinity between the two groups. T. turgidum appeared to be very closely related with T. polonicum. All the bands of T. ispahanicum were eomologous with hhose eo T. polonicum but the former lacked one fraction present in the latter. T. ispahanicum has seen described as a speltoid mutant of T. polonicum aad the mutation might tave resulted in the loss of a protein fraction.
