REVIEW OF LITERATURE The information on the subject is not lacking but the inferences of various investigations are not consistent and differ greatly according to the materials used and place of experimentation, However, the results of studies having some relevance to the subject are reviewed here briefly. |. ELECTROPHORESIS Electrophoretic techniques are widely used now a days in many countries for testing identity, purity and quality of wheat genotypes, The studies mostly concern with analyzing the polymorphism of sced and leaf proteins and enzymes (Cooke, 1988) ‘The Australian workers (Wrigley aud Shepherd, 1974) identified $0 wheat genotypes by this technique using starch gels. During the procedure, gliadins were extracted fiom single crushed wheat grains using 2M urea (6 ttl fresh solution/mg grain). Clydesdale et ai (1982) used this technique with some modifications and classified 51 wheat genotypes into 16 major groups. The protein banding pattem indicated the possibility for identification of all genotypes. Before this, Ellis (1971) found this method useful for identification of wheat genotypes itt combination with other seed characters. The trueness and purity of 68 wheat genotypes were determined on the basis of the electrophoretic banding pattern of the prolamins by Cemey et al. (1993).Due to the impressive discrimination power of electrophoretic method, it was used to identify Canadian (Zillman and Bushuk, 1979) and New Zealand (Macgibbon and Cross. 1982) wheat genotypes with polyacrylamide gels, After that, 155 wheat genotypes (30 spring and 125 winter) were classified by this method into 1] major groups by Cooke (1987). In addition, Wrigley et al. (1981) identified wheat genotypes with this method by coding electrophoretic patterns for cereal grain prolamins in numerical form Shewry et al, (1978) differentiated 6 bread wheat and 5 durum wheat genotypes by using 17.5 % acrylamide gels with sodium dodecyle sulphate buffers and fractionated the proteins extracted from single wheat grains following isopropanol-mercaptoethanol treatment. Marchylo (1987) observed $ different pattems of high molecular glutenin subunits consisting of 7-11 protein bands by resolving the gliadin und high and low molecular weight glutenin subunits in 19 registered Canadian spring wheat genotypes and 8 non-registered spring wheat genotypes from the USA. Anderson et al. (1985) analyzed protein extracted from seeds of 14 wheat genotypes using this technique with iso-clectric focusing and identified all genotypes, Other workers (Cox et al., 1988) identified 80 North American winter wheat genotypes by scparating isozymes, including esterases. Almgard and Clapham (1977) distinguished Swedish wheat genotypes on the basis of both the gliadin composition and the esterases. Peroxidase.malic dehydrogenase and other enzymes from seeds and seedlings were used by Salinas et al, (1982) for the identification of 39 Spanish wheat genotypes. All genotypes were classified into 3 major groups, However, 26 out of 39 were clearly identified. Sodium dodecyle sulphate gradient polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used by Marchylo et al. (1989) to separate grain storage proteins (gliadin and glutenin) of 70 wheat genotypes. The majority of the genotypes were distinguished by protein banding patterns with the exception of 3 groups of genotypes comprising 7 red spring, 2 white winter and 2 red winter wheat genotypes. The HMW glutenin subunits 2 and 5 were not resolved and J and 2 were partially resolved ll. GENOTYPE-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION AND STABILITY The variation in genotypic response from one environment to another is an intrinsic part of a genotypic behaviour and without its estimation, assessment of a genotype remains incomplete (Westcott, 1987), Several workers have studied this phenomenon and tried to specify and estimate the stability and adaptability of many wheat characters and their response to changing environments but the information regarding the subject is not consistent due to different genotypes and place of experimentation. In studying the genuineness of various characters, ISTA (1973) explained that plant height, flag leaf area, spike length and spike density are not stable characters in wheat and