Strategies to improve the efficiency and quality of mutant breeding using heavy-ion beam irradiation

Abstract

Heavy-ion beam irradiation (HIBI) is useful for generating new germplasm in plants and microorganisms due to its ability to induce high mutagenesis rate, broad mutagenesis spectrum, and excellent stability of mutants. However, due to the random mutagenesis and associated mutant breeding modalities, it is imperative to improve HIBI-based mutant breeding efficiency and quality. This review discusses and summarizes the findings of existing theoretical and technical studies and presents a set of tandem strategies to enable efficient and high-quality HIBI-based mutant breeding practices. These strategies: adjust the mutation-inducing techniques, regulate cellular response states, formulate high-throughput screening schemes, and apply the generated superior genetic elements to genetic engineering approaches, thereby, improving the implications and expanding the scope of HIBI-based mutant breeding. These strategies aim to improve the mutagenesis rate, screening efficiency, and utilization of positive mutations. Here, we propose a model based on the integration of these strategies that would leverage the advantages of HIBI while compensating for its present shortcomings. Owing to the unique advantages of HIBI in creating high-quality genetic resources, we believe this review will contribute toward improving HIBI-based breeding.

Keywords:

• Heavy-ion beam irradiation
• mutant breeding
• efficient mutation induction
• high-throughput screening
• positive mutation mining
• integrated workstation

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the experts at HIRFL for their help in better understanding the physical parameters associated with heavy-ion beam irradiation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant numbers 11975284, 11905265 and 12205132, "Western Young Scholar" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grant number E023211Y, and Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province under Grant number 20JR5RA552.