Induced Mutation: Creating Genetic Diversity in Plants

Abstract

Genetic diversity is the variation occurred in genetic information, which depends on frequency and diversity of alleles among individuals within a population or a species. This phenomenon, which is also a part of the evolution process, allows the organisms to adapt to changing conditions and to survive. Populations with high allelic variability are more easily adaptable to changing environmental conditions. However, nowadays, constant use of populations with certain characters in the plant breeding and the uniformity of consumer demands are among one of the causes of genetic erosion. Loss of genetic diversity within a species can lead to loss of useful properties for human beings. If stress conditions such as disease or drought occur, the ability of a population to survive by adapting to this new condition is dependent on the presence of individuals carrying gene alleles that need to adapt to these conditions.

Identification of Loci Governing Agronomic Traits and Mutation Hotspots via a GBS-Based Genome-Wide Association Study in a Soybean Mutant Diversity Pool

“…Although we identified four SMTAs for DF, FC, NN, and SCC at previously reported loci, whether these associations involve the same SNPs remains to be determined. Mutation breeding using radiation results in the formation of new alleles via splicing and insertions/deletions [ 63 ]. Because most soybean SNP chips constructed to date [ 31 , 64 ] were generated using natural populations, their utility for analyzing mutants is unclear.…”

Spontaneous, Artificial, and Genome Editing-Mediated Mutations in Prunus

“…Not only is diversity important in ensuring the continuity of plant species, but also in improving product quality of a myriad of crops [ 1 ]. Additionally, genetic diversity is foremost for breeding programs, as it allows for crops to successfully adapt to environmental changes [ 2 ]. As a result, over the past few decades, a bunch of strategies have been proposed to increase genetic diversity in fruit trees [ 3 ].…”

“…Moreover, it is said that mutation is at the bottom of cutting-edge plant breeding techniques [ 3 ]. This phenomenon occurs in living organisms naturally through repairing genetic materials, i.e., DNA & RNA damaged by physical, chemical, and biological agents [ 2 , 7 ]. This term was contrived by Hugo De Vries as the abrupt substitutions in either DNA or RNA of a plant organ with no recombination or separation [ 5 ].…”

Carbon-Ion Beam Radiosensitivity Study and Biological Responses of High-Yielding Rice Line, MR219-PL-5

“…Mutation breeding is widely used to enhance plant varieties by changing their genetic information in a relatively shorter period compared to conventional breeding (Yasmine et al 2019). Mutation means the hereditary changes that occur naturally and suddenly, which are not caused by recombination and segregation (Ulukapi & Nasircilar 2018). Recently, energetic heavy ion-beams have been used to generate mutants in plants because they induce mutations with high frequency at a relatively lower dose especially at which virtually all plants survive and they induce a broad spectrum of phenotypes without affecting other plant characteristics or severe growth inhibition (Abe et al 2007).…”