Capillary electrophoresis: a useful tool for the management of plant genetic resources.

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a powerful analytical tool that is widely applied to the analysis of biological samples. Proteins, peptides, nonprotein amino acids, phenolic compounds, and ions can be analysed using this electrophoretic methodology. This review summarises some applications of CE to the evaluation and characterisation of plant genetic resources of both Triticum and legume species, as carried out at the Istituto di Genetica Vegetale, National Research Council (IGV-CNR) in Bari (Italy). Different protein fractions as well as nonprotein amino acids were investigated by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), the most user-friendly mode of CE application. The described case studies show that CZE can be applied to some institutional activities of gene banks such as the evaluation of genetic diversity within stored collections, the acquisition of new samples, the differentiation of species belonging to the same genus, the identification of misclassified accessions, and the measurement of compounds relevant to nutrition or health.