Cereal Chem 63:500-505   |  VIEW ARTICLE
Identification of United States Barley Cultivars by Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis of Hordeins.

S. E. Heisel, D. M. Peterson, and B. L. Jones. Copyright 1986 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The possibility of identifying United States barley cultivars by the sodium dodecyl sulfate electrophoretic patterns of the hordein proteins was studied. Hordein polypeptides were extracted with 55% (v/v) isopropanol and 2% (v/v) 2-mercaptoethanol. Electrophoresis of samples prepared by direct dilution of the extract solution with sample buffer yielded more consistent electrophoregrams than those generated from precipitated hordeins. This was true whether the precipitated, native hordeins were dissolved directly in sample buffer or if they were alkylated before solubilization. Use of a sensitive silver stain allowed us to use lower amounts of protein, which may have made alkylation unnecessary for good band resolution. Analysis times and operating costs were minimized by use of a mini-electrophoretic vertical slab gel apparatus. Fifty- five barley cultivars commonly grown in the United States were analyzed, and they yielded 34 different hordein patterns. Twenty-four cultivars gave unique patterns, whereas each of the others fell into one of 10 groups, each of which comprised from two to seven cultivars.