Polymorphism of waxy proteins in Iberian hexaploid wheats

A collection of 130 cultivars of bread wheat, 332 landraces of bread wheat and 144 spelt wheats was analysed for waxy proteins in the grain. The electrophoretic patterns showed very low polymorphism and most of the hexaploid wheats had the Wx-A1a, Wx-D1a and Wx-B1a alleles of 'Chinese Spring'. Two alleles were detected at Wx-A1 (Wx-A1a, and Wx-A1b (null)), the latter was present in only 5.1% of the bread wheat landraces and 7.6% of the spelt wheats. No allelic variation was found at the Wx-D1 locus and all the hexaploid wheats had the Ws-D1a allele. Wx-B1 was the most polymorphic locus, with three alleles detected: Wx-B1a, Wx-B1b (null) and Wx-B1c' coding for a Wx-B1 protein with a slightly different mobility from Wx-B1a. The null Wx-B1b allele was found in 10.8% of the bread wheat cultivars, 21.4% of the bread wheat landraces and 12.5% of the spelt wheats. Among the 604 hexaploid wheats analysed, only two bread wheal landraces (0.6%) and two spelt wheats (1.4%) had the null allele at both Wx-A1 and Wx-B1 loci.