Diversity of five glutenin loci within durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum (Desf.) Husn.) germplasm grown in Algeria

The HMW and B-LMW glutenin subunits composition of 120 durum wheat germplasm grown in Algeria was examined using SDS-PAGE. All together, 39 glutenin patterns were detected, including eight for HMW and 21 for B-LMW glutenin subunits. Twenty-six different alleles were identified for the five glutenin loci studied, that is, Glu-A1 (3), Glu-B1 (7), Glu-A3 (5), Glu-B3 (9) and Glu-B2 (2). Two new alleles were found at Glu-B3 locus: Glu-B3new(1) encodes for five subunits (7+8+14+16+18) and Glu-B3new(2) codes for five subunits (4+6*+12+15+15*), of which subunit 15* with mobility between bands 15-16 was not described previously. At the Glu-1 loci, the Glu-A1c/Glu-B1e allelic composition was predominant. For the B-LMW glutenins, the most common allelic composition was Glu-A3a/Glu-B3a/Glu-B2a. The collection analysed shows glutenin alleles and allele combinations related to high gluten strength. This information could be useful to select varieties with improved quality and also as a source of genes to develop new lines when breeding for quality.