Seed protein homology and species relationship in the Tribe Vicieae

Electrophoresis of seed proteins from the tribe Vicieae species was carried out on SDS‐PAGE. On the basis of similarity matrix index, the homology of Cicer arietinum with the rest of the members of the tribe Vicieae is approximately the same as that of Trifolieae and Ononideae. This endorsed the removing of Cicer from Vicieae and assigned it to a separate tribe, the Cicerideae. The three dimensional model of the Cicer species grouped the species into five groups. One of these groups includes C. arietinum and C. reticulatum. These data support the suggestion that C. reticulatum is the wild progenitor of the cultivated Cicer.