The electrophoretic results of globulin B and glutelin are given in Fig 1 and 2, respectively. The differences among the studied taxa were clearly observed and the present study demonstrated that they have distinct relationships (Fig 3 and 4). A relationship was observed between
L. digitatus and
L. brachypterus var.
brachypterus (61.0 % similarity) and also
L. nivalis demonstrated a high relationship with
L. boissieri (50.0 % similarity) in first cluster according to the globulin B band profiles (Fig 3). In addition,
L. spathulatus has less homology within studied five species of section
Lathyrostylis and it is placed outer part of cluster I.
L. pratensis and
L. laxiflorus subsp.
laxiflorus (59.6 % similarity) also, are located in the second cluster. But
L. aureus, which is a member of section
Orobus, remained out of the clusters (Fig 3).
On the other hand, results of glutelin electrophoretic bands showed that studied taxa have been clustered in two clusters (Fig 4). In the cluster I,
L. brachypterus var.
brachypterus demonstrated a close similarity with
L. nivalis (54.9% similarity) and also
L. boissieri was associated with these two taxa (42.2% similarity for
L. brachypterus var.
brachypterus and 53.2% similarity for
L. nivalis).
L. digitatus and
L. spathulatus also exhibited close similarity (49.5% similarity) in cluster I. Additionally,
L. pratensis and
L. laxiflorus subsp.
laxiflorus were placed in cluster II. However,
L. aureus was located out of clusters (Fig 4). This study showed at the same time that globulin B amounts are higher than prolamin and glutelin amounts.
L. nivalis has the highest globulin B amount (5.640 µg/ml) and glutelin amounts (4.219 µg/ml) while
L. boissieri has the lowest globulin B amount (3.625 µg/ml) and glutelin amounts (2.227 µg/ml). The present study also found that the prolamin amounts of
Lathyrus taxa were the lowest (Table 2).
Section Orobus
Kupicha (1983) suggests that a few species which are included in section
Orobus (here represented by
L. aureus) are rather similar to the members of section
Lathyrostylis. But results of present study showed the globulin B and glutelin band patterns of
L. aureus (member of section
Orobus) to be distinct from the storage band patterns of the members in section
Lathyrostylis (five taxa) and
Pratensis (two taxa)
. L. aureus has 19, 22, 28, 35, 45 and 28 kDa globulin B bandings and the globulin band profile of
L. aureus with 28 kDa is common with
L. laxiflorus. The 32 kDa glutelin band profiles of
L. aureus is also,less dense than other taxa (Fig 1 and 2). Thus,
L. aureus is placed outer part of the clusters I (including five members of section
Lathyrostylis studied herein) and II (consisting the studied two members of section
Pratensis) according to the globulin B and glutelin (Fig 3 and 4). The phylogenetic of hypothesis which is derived from molecular characters presented in the study of Asmussen and Liston (1998) suggested that Kupicha’s section
Orobus is monophyletic. However,
Abou-El-Enain et al., (2007) claimed that the members of section
Orobus in the study (comprising
L. aureus) are gathered with members of section
Pratensis (including
L. pratensis and
L. laxiflorus subsp.
laxiflorus)
(Abou-El-Enain et al., 2007). Furthermore, the results of the present study disagree with those of
Kenicer et al., (2005) for the reason that the authors place all the members of section
Orobus (comprise
L. aureus) in a clade with
L. aphaca and
L. laxiflorus (Kenicer
et al., 2005).
Section Lathyrostylis
Members of
Lathyrostylis share many characteristics with some species in section
Orobus. Several researchers treat them as a part of a wider section
Orobus (Czefranova, 1971;
Kenicer et al., 2005). However, Bassler (1966) suggested the two sections to be different
(Abou-El-Enain et al., 2007). Most of the following works concur with this delimitation
(Davis et al., 1970; Dogan et al., 1992; Kenicer
et al., 2005; Abou-El-Enain, 2007). This study showed that the members of section
Lathyrostylis have common globulin B band profiles. But, 45 kDa globulin B banding of
L. spathulatus and 32 and 35 kDa globulin B banding of
L. boissieri are less dense than other taxa (Fig 1 and 2). The findings of the present study also indicate that the two sections are distinct and the members of section
Lathyrostylis (
L. brachypterus var.
brachypterus,
L. nivalis, L. digitatus, L. spathulatus and
L. boissieri) are grouped together (Fig 3 and 4). Similarly,
Oskoueiyan et al., (2014) found that
L. aureus is placed in different clusters from species of
Lathyrostylis. In addition, Oskoueiyan
et al., (2014) suggested that
L. digitatus, L. boissieri and
L. brachypterus are clustered in the same group. On the other hand, Davis (1970) indicated that
L. nivalis is superficially close to
L. spathulatus. Electrophoretic data presented here suggested that glutelin (49.3% similarity) band patterns of
L. nivalis are similar to
L. spathulatus but similarity of globulin B (24.1% similarity) band patterns of afore--mentioned species are low (Fig 3 and 4). However, Gunes (2012) indicated that
L. nivalis and
L. spathulatus have different seed morphologies.
Section Pratensis
Kupicha (1983) indicated that the members of section
Pratensis (here represented by
L. pratensis and
L. laxiflorussubsp.
laxiflorus) form a well-defined group, sharing several distinctive characteristics. Current study demonstrated that the 28 kDa band pattern of
L. pratensis is less dense than
L. laxiflorus. This study also showed that
L. pratensis and
L. laxiflorus have similar globulin B and glutelin band patterns (Fig 1 and 2). Findings of the present study showed that the members of section
Pratensis are clearly clustered distinctly from both species of sections
Orobus and
Lathyrostylis as the electrophoretic band patterns reveal (Fig 3 and 4)
. These results well agreed with the studies rely on chloroplast DNA characters (Asmussen and Liston, 1998), seed surface characters
(Abou-El-Enain et al., 2007) and petal micromorphology
(Cildir et al., 2012). Similarly,
Emre et al., (2006) suggested that
L. pratensis and
L. laxiflorus subsp.
laxiflorus have a close affinity based on electrophoretic analysis of total seed proteins. Nevertheless, the findings of present study contrast with
Dogan et al., (1992)’s morphological data;
Dogan et al., (1992) indicated that
L. pratensis and
L. laxiflorus subsp.
laxiflorus are located in different subgroups in cluster analysis.
