Morphological Evaluation and Protein Profiling of Three Accessions of Nigerian Corchorus Linn. Species

Vegetative characters and protein profiles of three accessions of Corchorus species were investigated at the experimental plot of the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, University of Benin, Benin City and the Biotechnology Laboratory, University of Agriculture Abeokuta respectively. Corchorus seeds labeled NHCO3, NHCO25 and NHCO26 were obtained from Nigerian Institute of Horticulture (NIHORT), Ibadan. The morphological evaluation was conducted by studying leaf shapes, leaf margin, leaf base, leaf apex, venation, leaf color, leaf texture, plant height, branching, stem type, stem pubescence and stem color. Results show that leaf margin was the most important in distinguishing cultivated Corchorus species. Plant height varied from 16.00 – 68.40 cm for NHCO25, 16.40 – 63.60 cm for NHCO3 and 16.10 – 69.50 cm in NHCO26. Protein profiling was done through SDS-PAGE. No band was shown, signifying that the three accessions are likely to be related. It is suggested from this study that foliar characters are more important in characterizing Nigerian Corchorus species.