Domestication of Cuphea through mutagenesis

Cuphea plants have promising characteristics as unique source of medium chain fatty acids. Although several groups of researchers in the world are working to domesticate this promising plant species, it still has many unfavorable wild characters, preventing it from becoming a practical agricultural crop at the present stage. In the present research, mutation breeding methods were adopted to domesticate the species in hope of inducing genetic modifications, but retaining its fatty acid constitution. Among the problematic characters, indeterminate growth pattern and non-uniform maturity, dormancy/germination, shattering of seeds and other plant morphology or plant-architecture traits must be modified to adapt it to the modern agricultural system. Several species of Cuphea were evaluated as the initial material. Problems of seed germination and those encountered in soaking the seeds in water or aqueous chemical mutagen solution could be solved and several promising and interesting mutant lines could be obtained. (author). 15 refs, 5 tabs