The Journal of Heredity 1987:78(3):210-212
© 1987 The American Genetic Association 78:210-212
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Isozyme variation in proso millet
Biosystematics Research Center, Agriculture Canada Wm Saunders Bldg., C.E.F., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0C6
Abstract
Proso millet (Panicum millaceum L.), a cultivated species, exhibits considerable morphological and physiological variation, including the relatively recent divergence of weedy strains. Isozyme variation was assessed for seedlings grown from 110 world-wide accessions of proso millet, including seed material from two world seed banks representing cultivated varieties, and weedy strains from North America and Europe. Variation was detected in only two (AAT and 6PGD) of the 11 enzyme systems examined. All plants were monomorphic for identical alleles for eight loci. Fixed heterozygous phenotypes were observed at 11 of the 19 enzyme loci examined. Only five multilocus genotypes were evident, these differing by only one or two alleles from each other. There was no obvious correlation of isozyme patterns with seed color type, degree of weediness, and geographical origin. All of the populations contained a single genotype and 65 percent of the collections contained the same genotype. All North American weedy strains of proso millet were either one or the other of two genotypes. All black-seeded weedy strains of the species from both Europe and North America contained the most common genotype.