SEED PROTEIN ANALYSIS IN RELATION TO TAXONOMY OF THE IRANIAN LINUM SPECIES

Seed storage protein analysis was carried out on twelve Iranian species of Linum with the aim to illustrate species inter-relationships and to evaluate the taxonomic treatments proposed for the genus. Placement of species in different sections according to cluster analysis of protein data was highly in agreement with previous phenetic morphological based studies. Grouping of species supported the proposed memberships of Linum species in Iran, and SDS-PAGE profile of seed proteins proved to be useful to be included together with other molecular markers in biosystematics of genus Linum at sub-generic level.