Cereal Chem 49:391 - 398.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Changes in the Amylases of Hard Red Spring Wheat During Germination.

J. E. Kruger. Copyright 1972 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Amylases of Canadian hard red spring wheat were studied during germination by polyacrylamide-slab electrophoresis at pH 9.0. Two sets of alpha-amylase isozymes form during germination. One set is composed of three isozymes, and has identical electrophoretic mobility with the alpha-amylases found in immature kernels of wheat. The other set is composed of at least four electrophoretically slower isozymes. The electrophoretic mobility of this set of isozymes and their intensities change upon heat-treatment during the earlier stages of germination. Analysis of alpha-amylase, formerly purified, indicated that it was the electrophoretically slower set of isozymes which had been isolated. With beta-amylase, the original components seem to disappear at the same time that a new electrophoretically slower beta-amylase component is formed. The electrophoretic technique can be made more sensitive to ascertain the nature of amylases in varieties of wheat with lowered amylograph viscosities.