541 Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 27 (No 3) 2021, 541–554 Genetic variation of gliadins and some quality characteristics in spelt wheat Gergana Desheva * , Bozhidar Kyosev, Maria Sabeva and Manol Deshev Institute of Plant Genetic Resources “Konstantin Malkov”, 4121 Sadovo, Bulgaria * Corresponding author: gergana_desheva@abv.bg Abstract Desheva, G., Kyosev, B., Sabeva, M. & Deshev, M. (2021). Genetic variation of gliadins and some quality charac- teristics in spelt wheat. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 27 (3), 541–554 The aim of the study was to asses the genetic variation in 22 accessions of Triticum spelta L. on the basis of quality char- acteristics and A-PAGE markers. Eleven quality characteristics of grain and whole spelt wheat four were included in the study. The results of analysis of variance showed high signifcant diferences between spelt wheat accessions. Phenotypic coefcient of variation (PCV) was greater than genotypic coefcient of variation (GCV) for all the traits. High PCV and GCV were observed for sedimentation and fermentation values. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percentage of mean was recorded for vitreousness, sedimentation value and fermentation value that indicate selection of such traits may be efective. The cluster analys base on studied characteristics using the Between-groups linkage method group the genotypes into four clusters. Genotypes in the fourth cluster BGR 19018 and BGR 28710 were in the highest rate with respect to thousand kernel weight, vitreousness, crude protein content, wet gluten content, dry gluten content, sedimentation value and fermenta- tion value. In total, 51 polymorphic and 2 monomorphic bands and 20 gliadin patterns were identifed by A-PAGE. Fourteen diferent mobility bands and 13 gliadin patterns were identifed in the ω-gliadin zone, 17 bands and 18 patterns were noted in the γ-gliadins, 14 patterns and 10 mobility bands were found for β-gliadins and 12 bands with 16 diferent α -gliadin patterns were determined. The genetic diversity index (H) was the highest for γ-gliadins (0.908), followed by α -gliadins (0.844), re- spectively and the lowest value was detected in ω-gliadin patterns (0.804). The genetic similarities (GS) among 22 spelt genotypes estimated by Jaccard’s coefficient ranged from 0.103 to 1. The lowest GS was found between genotypes: BGR 26757 and B2000280, respectively, which indicates that the genetic diversity within these pairs of accessions was very high. Three pairs of genotypes had GS equal to 1 (BGR 10978 and BGR 23639; B2000277 and B2000279; BGR 28710 and BGR 10975), which indicated that they are genetically identical and do not differ in their gliadin spectra. Cluster analysis base on gliadin bands data classifed genotypes into 11 main groups. Keywords: A-PAGE; gliadin; genetic variability; Triticum spelta L.; quality characteristics; cluster analysis Introduction Spelt wheat (Triticum spelta L.) was one of the major feed and food grains in ancient Europe. In the second half of the 20th century, the interest to spelt was revived on account of its health benefts, high nutritional value, and suitability for breeding programs aiming to develop varieties characterized by high grain quality and high resistance to pathogens (Paka et al., 2019) as well as because of the increasing demand for unconventional foods and low-input agriculture (Xueli et al., 2005). Spelt wheat (Triticum spelta L.) as a represen- tative of hexaploid series of the Triticum genome constitu- tion, is characterized by a great adaptation to a wider range of environments (Dinu et al., 2018). Therefore knowledge of genetic variation in spelt wheat is a useful tool to select- ing of desirable genotypes to be used in breeding programs