CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS IN SPECIES AND CULTIVAR DETERMINATION

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a new separation technique, with possible applications in biochemistry, pharmacology and medicine. Many compounds can be separated and well characterized by means of CE; e.g. drugs, amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids. The potential of CE for cultivar and species identification was shown by means of four identification cases from both Dicotyledons (Phaseolus, Vigna and Vicia) and Monocotyledons (Lolium and Zea). Characterization and identification were based on qualitative characters and for every identirication case a Relative Similarity Index (RSI) was calculated. In all cases, CE analysis permitted the identification of unidentified samples. However, the extraction of storage proteins from Dicotyledons gave better results than from Monocotyledons. To emphasize the potential of CE for cultivar identification, a cost-benefit analysis of one complete test using CE was performed.