Evaluation of protein variation and different peptides expression content in Astragalus hamosus L. ecotypes using SDS-PAGE method

Astragalus hamosus L. is an annual, herbaceous belonged to Leguminosae family. Understanding the pattern of plant species diversity is important in breeding programs and leads to awareness of evolutionary processes. This study was conducted on protein diversity of the ecotypes of this plant species. According to the protein variation analysis of A.hamosus, the polymorphism index content (PIC) was calculated as 0.49. Cluster dendrogram was drawn using Dice similarity coefficient and UPGMA method. The ecotypes were classified into three subgroups with cophenetic correlation coefficient 0.88. Out of the 13 ecotypes, 11 were grouped together with relatively high similarity. Kermanshah ecotype no1 was significantly separated from other ecotypes. According to the results of the expression of seven peptides studied in 13 ecotypes, the highest and lowest cumulative expression levels belonged to peptides6 and 7 with 24195 and 4328 units by PhoretixPro software, respectively. Based on biplot analysis, the highest expression of peptides in all different ecotypes was related to peptide 4 of Kermanshah ecotype 2. Peptide 7 was not expressed in any other ecotypes, even at very low levels. It was concluded that a new protein was added to the protein profile of A. hamosus in the Kermanshah ecotype with the emergence of this peptide.