All current and old wheat cultivars grown in Iran were characterised by sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The high-molecular-weight glutenin subunit (HMW-GS) banding patterns for each cultivar were assigned a Glu-1 quality score, a theoretical quality score based on Payne’s Glu-1 quality assignments. At the Glu-A1 loci, HMW-GS subunit compositions N, 7 + 8, 2 + 12 and 2*, 7 + 8, 2 + 12 were found to be predominant being expressed in 24 and 15 cultivars, respectively, out of 95. Eighteen different alleles were identified for the 3 loci studied: Glu-A1 (3), Glu-B1 (9), and Glu-D1 (6). The glutenin quality scores of Iranian wheat ranged from 4 to 10, with an average of 7.4. It was found that some cultivars were heterogeneous in HMW-GS composition. In cv. Cooleh, only one glutenin subunit at the Glu-B1 locus was present. HMW-GS 2*** + 12′ was found in 6 cultivars and biotypes. The results obtained here describing the allelic composition of bread wheat commonly grown in Iran may be useful in wheat breeding programs selecting for good quality parameters.