Intraspecific Differentiation and Isozyme Patterns in Allium wakegi Araki

Abstract

Glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH), phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI) and phosphoglucomutase (PGM) isozyme banding patterns were investigated in 27 cultivars of Allium wakegi, 3 cultivars of A. ascalonicum (shallot), 7 cultivars of A. fistulosum (Welsh onion or Japanese bunching onion) and 2 cultivars of A. cepa (onion). Although there is distinct morphological and ecological intraspecific differentiation in A. wakegi, almost no zymographic variations were observed among the cultivars except Ginoza′. Our findings that some PGI bands in ′Ginoza′ are seen only in A. fistulosum cultivars and others are common in all A. wakegi cultivars and that some morphological and ecological characters in ′Ginoza′ differ from those in other A. wakegi cultivars (reported previously) suggest that this cultivar may have originated as a backcrossed plant between A. wakegi (A. fistulosum×A. ascalonicum) and A. fistulosum.
A. wakegi is easily separable from A. ascalonicum, A. fistulosum and A. cepa though the discrimination between A. ascalonicum and A. cepa seems to be difficult by the isozyme patterns investigated here, showing the similarity between these two species.