Digital technology for comparative analysis of protein electrophoretic spectra in maize breeding and genetic research

Abstract

Successful interpretation of research results in biology depends largely on the design of the experimental scheme. A fundamental guiding principle in this context is the widely accepted “principle of the single difference.” Accordingly, testing of a working hypothesis is conducted by comparing the experimental variant with a control. In genetic and breeding studies, this experimental approach - regardless of the experimentation level - is considered standard. This is clearly illustrated by the long-term analysis of data from studies on plant protein polymorphism (specifically, for the endosperm storage protein zein in maize). According to literary data, in the methodology of interpreting electrophoretic (EP) spectra of zein from various maize genotypes, the primary tool for express assessment of the presence or absence of zein molecular forms (ZMFs) in the studied samples is their visual comparison, along with quantitative calculation of EP zone components and their relative electrophoretic mobility (rf).