Identification of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) varieties through chemical testsand electrophoresis of soluble seed proteins

The ability to characterize and identify plant varieties is fundamental to several aspects of seed trade. Thirty five genotypes of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) which are in demand and in seed production chain were characterized by utilizing the biochemical tools like total soluble seed proteins and seed and seedling characteristics for their reaction to NaOH, KOH, GA₃ and 2,4-D tests. It was possible to differentiate between all the cultivars into different groups like light brown and dark brown and also low, moderate and high response of coleoptile to respective chemicals. The banding pattern of soluble seed proteins by SDS-PAGE was quite different for each of these genotypes individually. The number of bands in different molecular weight ranged from 11 to 28. The genotype GG 12 exhibited least number (11) of bands and the genotype GG 20 produced maximum number (28) of bands. The seed protein profiles of the genotypes revealed the qualitative and quantitative variation among the different genotypes, thus indicating the usefulness of electrophoretic variation in varietal identification.