Experience with in-vitro mutant selection of intact plants

A survey is presented on mutant isolation with intact plants today and in the future. The model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, which has several advantages for mutation research, was chosen as an effective tool for studying the principles of mutant selection. The ideal preconditions will be met only in part by important crop plants; however, the strategy for breeding can be designed on the basis of the experience of mutant detection amd mutant rate calculation in Arabidopsis. The significance of genetic effective cell number and the costs of pedigree analysis versus bulk screening are discussed. The selection technique with intact plants has resulted in many different mutant types being conserved in the seed bank of the Arabidopsis Information Service. The conclusions deal with the variant genetic background and the adaptation capacity of mutant lines versus natural populations. Selection and breeding of the desired mutants using many different genetic resources are recommended. (author)