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Flower color mutants induced by carbon ion beam irradiation of geranium (Pelargonium × hortorum, Bailey)

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Abstract

In an attempt to elucidate the biological effects and underlying mutations involving flower color in ornamental plants following carbon ion beam radiation, shoots of geranium were exposed at dosages of 0, 10, 15, 30, and 40 Gy, and one flower color mutant was obtained. The morphological characteristics, physiological aspects, and DNA polymorphisms between wild-type and flower color mutants were analyzed. The colors of petal, peduncle, pistil, and stamen of the mutant displayed significant differences compared to those of the wild-type. Compared to the original plants, the total anthocyanin content in the petals of the mutant significantly decreased, resulting in a light pink petal phenotype. DNA polymorphisms detected by random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis showed that the ratio of different bands between the wild-type and mutant reached up to 13.2 %. The present study demonstrates that carbon ion beam irradiation is effective in inducing genomic variations, resulting in flower color geranium mutants within a relatively short period of time. Meanwhile, the developed flower-color mutants may be potentially used in future mutational research studies involving ornamental plants.

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Acknowledgments

We express our gratitude to Mr. Huai-An Gu (Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Dr. Jinyu He for their invaluable assistance. We also thank our colleagues at HIRFL for providing the carbon ion beams.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Biophysics Group, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 509 Nanchang Road, Lanzhou, 730000, China

      Li-Xia Yu, Wen-Jian Li, Yan Du, Rui-Yuan Liu & Li-Bin Zhou

    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

      Li-Xia Yu, Shan-Wei Luo & Hui Feng

    3. Ningxia Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, 590 West Huanghe, Yinchuan, 750002, China

      Gang Chen

    4. Gansu Agricultural University, No. 1 Yingmen Village, Anning District, Lanzhou, 730070, China

      Rui-Yuan Liu

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    1. Li-Xia Yu
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    Correspondence to Li-Bin Zhou.

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    Li-Xia Yu, Wen-Jian Li, and Yan Du have contributed equally to this research.

    This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11205218, 11275171, and 11405234), the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (No. KJCX2-EW-N05), CAS “Light of West China” Program (No. 29Y506020), and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS (No. 29Y506030) supported this study.

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    Yu, LX., Li, WJ., Du, Y. et al. Flower color mutants induced by carbon ion beam irradiation of geranium (Pelargonium × hortorum, Bailey). NUCL SCI TECH 27, 112 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-016-0117-3

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