MOLECULAR REASSESSMENT OF RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN Vicieae USING ELECTROPHORETIC AND IMMUNOCHEMICAL TECHNIQUES

An array of electrophoretic and immunochemical techniques was used to investigate legumins, vicilins, and albumins of seed storage proteins of pea (Pisum sativum), bean (Viciafaba), lentil (Lens esculentum) and chick pea (Cicer arientinum) to delimit the boundary of the tribe Vicieae and to clarify the systematic position of the genus Cicer. Theband patterns of the legumins of these species were broadly similar in having bands at Mr 60,000 under non-reducing conditions and two sets of bands, at Mr approximately 40,000 and 20,000 under reducing conditions. And the band patterns of the vicilins were quit similar showing bands at Mr approximately 71,000 (convicilin) and 50,000 (vicilin). Serologically, the legumins of V. faba and L. esculentum gave a total identity with P. sativum legumin antiserum under non-reducing conditions, whereas the legumin of C. arientinum exhibited a partial identity, which was attributed to the failure of the low molecular sub-unit pair (Mr 33,000) to react with Pisum legumin antiserum. The vicilins of V. faba, L. esculentum and C. arientinum had a partial identity with vicilin of Pisum sativum. The clectrophoretic patterns of V.faba, L. esculentum and C. arientinum albumins were markedly different. However, they gave a positive reaction with Pisum major albumin antiserum (Mr 25000). Immunochemically, the vicilin and legumin of Cicer were more related to those of Vicieae than to those of Phaseoleae, Glycineae, Cajaneae, Diocleae. Thus, the data presented in this work suggested the classification of Cicer under Vicieae rather than a separate tribe Cicerideae.