Genetic polymorphisms in mutagenesis progeny of Arabidopsis thaliana irradiated by carbon-ion beams and γ-rays irradiations

Abstract

Purpose: Heavy-ion beams and γ-rays are popular physical mutagenesis to generate mutations in higher plants. It has been found that they show different mutation frequencies and spectrums of phenotype induction, however, the characteristics of heavy-ion beams on genetic polymorphism have not been clarified by comparing with γ-rays.

Materials and methods: In the present study, seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana were exposed to carbon-ion beams (with linear energy transfer (LET) of 50 keV/μm) and γ-rays (with average LET of 0.2 keV/μm) irradiation. By using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis, the genetic polymorphism of both M₁ and M₃ plants were investigated, respectively.

Results: Carbon-ion beams induced relatively higher polymorphism rate in both M₁ and M₃ generation than γ-rays: the polymorphism rates of M₁ plants derived from carbon-ion beams irradiation are 12.87% (ISSR-C) and 9.01% (RAPD-C), while are 7.67% (ISSR-γ) and 1.45% (RAPD-γ) of plants derived from γ-rays. In M₃ generation, the polymorphism rates of ISSR-C, RAPD-C, ISSR-γ, and RAPD-γ are 17.64%, 22.79%, 12.10%, and 2.82%, respectively.

Conclusions: In summary, the exposure to carbon-ion beams and γ-rays lead to the change of genomic DNA of A. thaliana, which could be tested in M₁ plants and M₃ plants by ISSR and RAPD technology. So, both carbon-ion beams and γ-rays can induce variations of genetic polymorphisms in M₁ plants and M₃ plants. The genetic polymorphisms of M₁ plants and M₃ plants induced by carbon-ion beams are higher than γ-rays, indicating that heavy-ion beams irradiations mutation breeding is more advantageous than conventional ionizing radiations. Average molecular polymorphism of M₁ plants is lower than M₃ mutants, by nearly 4.77% (ISSR-C), 13.78% (RAPD-C), 4.43% (ISSR-γ), and 1.37% (RAPD-γ). We hope our study will provide basic information for understanding the effects of carbon-ion beams and γ-rays for plant mutation breeding.

Keywords:

• Carbon-ion beams
• γ-rays
• Arabidopsis thaliana
• ISSR
• RAPD

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the operators at the HIRFL for supplying the carbon-ion beams.

Disclosure statement

The authors have declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11975285, No. 11705249), Guangdong Procincial Key Research and Development Program (2018B020206002) and Science and Technology Research Cooperation Program of Sichuan Provincial Institutes and Universities (18SYXHZ0014).

Notes on contributors

Xia Chen

Xia Chen is a doctoral candidate at Department of Biophysics, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research is plant mutation breeding by heavy-ion beams, and her interest is plant molecular breeding.

Hui Feng

Hui Feng is master graduate student at Department of Biophysics, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research is plant mutation breeding by heavy-ion beams, and her interest is plant molecular breeding.

Yan Du

Yan Du, PhD, is an associate professor at Department of Biophysics, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research is plant mutation breeding by heavy-ion beams, and her interest is genomic variation study of plants irradiated by heavy ion beams.

Shanwei Luo

Shanwei Luo is a doctoral candidate at Department of Biophysics, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research is plant mutation breeding by heavy-ion beams, and his interest is transcriptomic analysis.

Wenjian Li

Wenjian Li, PhD, is a professor at Department of Biophysics, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research is nuclear physics, and his interests plant mutation breeding by heavy-ion beams.

Lixia Yu

Lixia Yu, PhD, is an associate professor at Department of Biophysics, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research is plant mutation breeding by heavy-ion beams, and her interest is crop genetic and breeding.

Zhuo Feng

Zhuo Feng is a doctoral candidate at Department of Biophysics, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research is plant mutation breeding by heavy-ion beams, and his interest is bioinformatic analysis for organism.

Tao Cui

Tao Cui is master graduate student at Department of Biophysics, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research is plant mutation breeding by heavy-ion beams, and his interest is plant molecular breeding.

Libin Zhou

Libin Zhou, PhD, is a professor at Department of Biophysics, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research is radiation biology, and his interests are mutation breeding in plants and microorganisms induced by heavy-ion beam irradiations.