Mutagenesis for Crop Breeding and Functional Genomics

Abstract

Genetic variation is a source of phenotypic diversity and is a major driver of evolutionary diversification. Heritable variation was observed and used thousands of years ago in the domestication of plants and animals. The mechanisms that govern the inheritance of traits were later described by Mendel. In the early decades of the twentieth century, scientists showed that the relatively slow rate of natural mutation could be increased by several orders of magnitude by treating Drosophila and cereals with X-rays. What is striking about these achievements is that they came in advance of experimental evidence that DNA is the heritable material. This highlights one major advantage of induced mutations for crop breeding: prior knowledge of genes or gene function is not required to successfully create plants with improved traits and to release new varieties. Indeed, mutation induction has been an important tool for crop breeding since the release of the first mutant variety of tobacco in the 1930s. In addition to plant mutation breeding, induced mutations have been used extensively for functional genomics in model organisms and crops. Novel reverse-genetic strategies, such as Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes (TILLING), are being used for the production of stable genetic stocks of mutant plant populations such as Arabidopsis, barley, soybean, tomato and wheat. These can be kept for many years and screened repeatedly for different traits. Robust and efficient methods are required for the seamless integration of induced mutations in breeding and functional genomics studies. This chapter provides an overview of the principles and methodologies that underpin the set of protocols and guidelines for the use of induced mutations to improve crops.

The morphological and phytochemical studies on the effect of acute and recurrent irradiation in Celosia cristata seeds

“…Because it's a selfpollinated plant, the hybridization techniques for improving morphology and metabolite diversity of C. cristata need to be improved. Recently, mutation breeding in the plant has been widely used to create new plant varieties ( Zhou et al 2015;Oladosu et al 2016;Jankowicz-Cieslak et al 2017). Gamma-ray irradiation is one alternative technique that advantageous (e.g., rapid, effective) to create plant mutants that potential for breeding varieties ( Atay et al 2018;Asif and Khalil Ansari 2019;Parchin et al 2019).…”

GENETIC VARIABILITY, HERITABILITY AND GENETIC ADVANCE FOR YIELD AND QUALITY TRAITS IN M2-4 GENERATIONS OF BREAD WHEAT (Triticum aestivum L.) GENOTYPES

“…Several achievements in crop improvement through mutation breeding have resulted in two major outcomes: improved varieties that are directly used for commercial cultivation and new genetic stocks with improved characters or with better combining ability of traits (Roychowdhury and Tah, 2013). More than 3,200 mutant varieties have been directly or indirectly derived through mutation induction, nearly 80 % of these crop varieties are seed propagated, almost half of which (48 %) are cereals (Jankowicz-Cieslak et al, 2017) including 274 bread wheat varieties (International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, 2018) are being grown in different countries of the worldwide. Considering the improvements in mutation breeding in the world, unfortunately, there is no mutant wheat variety in our country yet.…”

Induction and recovery of copy number variation in banana through gamma irradiation and low‐coverage whole‐genome sequencing

“…Traditional breeding methods in seed propagated crops utilize natural nucleotide and chromosome structure differences within or between species to create new allelic combinations and alter heritable traits. Where sufficient variation is not available or accessible, mutations have been induced by treatment of plant cells with chemical mutagens or ionizing radiation (Jankowicz‐Cieslak et al ., ). The use of mutagenesis to facilitate breeding has been termed ‘mutation breeding’, and to date, there are over 3275 officially registered mutant varieties with an estimated global economic impact in the billions of dollars (Ahloowalia et al ., ; Jankowicz‐Cieslak et al ., ; Kharkwal and Shu, ).…”