Electrophoretic Variation in Esterases of Three Varieties of Oats ( Avena sativa )

THE work reported here was initiated to obtain preliminary information about the extent and nature of electro-phoretic variation of esterase isozymes within commercial “pure line” varieties of a self-pollinated species. Many of the agronomic characters which could be used to measure genetic variation have been selected for uniformity within the varieties; however, esterase banding patterns have not been selected intentionally. If these patterns are not correlated with characters previously selected, their variation might be a satisfactory indication of the overall genetic variation present in the varieties.