Screening and identification of hmw-gs mutants in wheat

The variation and compositions of high molecular weight glutenin subunits(HMW-GS) in the SP2 of space loaded Baiyingdong 2 were analyzed by SDS-PAGE techniques. 2 mutants(mut1 and mut2) of HMW-GS were screened out, the variation frequency was 2.17%. Using gliadin protein electrophoresis proved the HMW-GS mutants were induced by space-flight mutation. 4 kinds of HMW-GS compositions were found in mut1 seeds, and the mutations occurred in Glu-1B and Glu-1D sites. The mutated subunits resulted from the coding genes' mutations which were induced by space-flight, their electrophoretic mobility changed significantly, these mutated subunits were new glutenin subunits. The results of this study showed that space-flight mutation could create new HMW-GS, and space-flight mutation was an effective method for enriching the HMW-GS gene resource. (authors)