ELECTROPHORETIC STUDIES OF SEED PROTEINS IN RELATION TO CHROMOSOMAL CRITERIA AND THE RELATIONSHIPS OF SOME TAXA OF TRIFOLIUM

Electrophoretic seed protein patterns of 30 samples belonging to 20 species and four sections of Trifolium, treated by numerical analysis, as well as karyotype data for the same samples, are discussed in the light of current sectional and subsectional delimitation. The grouping of taxa in T. sect. Mistyllus and sect. Vesicaria, both with a basic chromosome number of x = 8, agree with their previous sectional delimitation based on morphological characters, and with chromosomal features such as karyotype symmetry. In T. sect. Trifolium five samples representing four species (three with x = 7) were grouped together, whereas T. rubens (x = 8) of the same section was found most similar to some species of T. sect. Lotoidea. In the latter section, the grouping of a number of species was anomalous as exemplified by the low levels of similarity between species of T. subsect. Platystylium among which T. tembense showed closer affinity to the species in T. sect. Mistylius. T. sect. Lotoidea appears as a heterogeneous group in which species relationship requires reconsideration.