Mutation breeding newsletter and reviews. No. 1

Since the first issue of Mutation Breeding Newsletter (MBNL) was born in May 1972, and her sister Mutation Breeding Review (MBR) ten years later, there were 46 issues of MBNL and 13 MBR published, both MBNL and MBR, being the only specialised publications on mutation breeding worldwide. Our contributors and readers have enthusiastically supported them. During the past half century, mutation induction has matured from a focal research area to sophisticated technologies in modern plant improvement. Doubtlessly, these two publications played unique and important roles in fostering the development and application of mutation techniques in plant research, germplasm innovation, and new variety development. We are indebted to our predecessors at Plant Breeding and Genetics Section, and especially to Dr Alexander Micke, to have born and raised these publications and fostered their spread. In 1998, a new newsletter, Plant Breeding and Genetic Newsletter (PBGN), became a regular bulletin, covering all activities in our Section. Therefore, a major function of the MBNL was largely replaced by PBGN. On the other hand, the FAO/IAEA Mutant Variety Database (http://www-mvd.iaea.org/MVD/default.htm) has also taken over some functions of these two publications. Because of this and other reasons, we are facing a dwindling number of suitable submissions from outside for these two periodicals, and MBNL and MBR have become irregular publications since 2001. Even though, we, as well as many of you, contributors and readers, still believe that these two publications have reason to exist, but to keep them alive, significant evolution is inevitable. During the recent decade, mutation techniques are no longer used only as a tool for crop improvement of traditional traits, e.g. yield, resistance to disease and pests, but more frequently for diversified uses of crop end-products, enhancing quality and nutritional values and tolerances to abiotic stresses. Thanks to the massive progress in research of plant molecular biology and biotechnology, particularly plant genomics, we are witnessing new impulses in plant mutation research, from fundamental studies on mutagenesis to reverse genetics. Breeders are now able to use mutation techniques with more sophistication and efficiency than ever before dreamed possible. With all these on-going developments, we are confident that MBNL and MNR should and could evolve, step by step, towards a periodical of higher scientific value, possibly as an international journal on mutation research and application in plants. We already have some tentative names for this journal such as 'Plant Mutation Digest', or 'Plant Mutation Reports'. We also look forward to your constructive proposals on this. We fused the MBNL and MBR in this issue into Mutation Breeding Newsletter and Reviews (MBN and R), and will try to publish it for a couple of years under this format, before we attempt a final upgrade. Your continuing contributions are highly appreciated and positively encouraged