Radiation-Induced Mutation and Crop Improvement

Radiation induced mutations have not only been used directly as a cultivar in crop plants, but also indirectly as a genetic resource that is essential to conventional plant breeding. M1 plant survivals of three rice cultivars treated with gamma rays of 200-350 Gy varied from 30-40%. The survival of the Sawing variety was less sensitive to radiation, but its fertility was more sensitive in comparison with Seomjin and Sponging. Various dwarf or semi-dwarf mutants and early=matured mutants have been selected in the M2 and M3 generations of the three rice cultivars irradiated with gamma rays. Other desirable mutants also have been selected, such as high-yielding, high-tailoring and disease-resistant. The genetic nature of most of the selected short calm and earliness mutants was fixed in M2 or M3 generations. Dwarfism of IEAR 308 and Monogynol 10 were found to have a single recessive gene. However, the dwarf of IEAR 308 has a recessive deficit phenomenon. The highest genetic heritability of plant height was observed in the cross combination of Monogynol 10 Χ Pawling