Some examples of the use of electrophoretic protein analysis in taxonomic investigations of leguminous plants

The article reviews the work of the author and coworkers on the use of electrophoretic protein analysis in taxonomie studies and classification of genetic resources of some leguminous plants: the genus Pisum, the Old-World Lupinus species and the cultivated Phaseolus species. On the example of the genus Pisum, the object of many years' investigations, the usefulness of electrophoretic analysis of different protein types - seed globulins, seed albumins and enzyme systems - is critically discussed. It has been concluded that variation in seed albumins, proteins often ignored in comparative analyses, should be more widely considered in taxonomie investigations. The conclusion was supported by the results obtained for Lupinus and Phaseolus species.