Electrophoretic variation of phytohemagglutinin in a common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) germplasm collection

In an effort to characterize the bean germplasm collection maintained at the Germplasm Institute , the electrophotretic variation of phytohaemagglutinin was analyzed by SDS/PAGE. Eleven variants were identified. Agglutination tests were performed on the protein extracts to detect the presence of mutants lacking phytohemaggutinin. About 8% of accessions were found to be phytohaemagglutin-deficient, with two different electrophoretic patterns.