Characteristics of phenotype and genetic mutations in rice after spaceflight

Abstract

To investigate the mechanism of spaceflight induced mutations, seeds of 11 pure rice varieties carried by Shenzhou-3 spaceship of China in 2002 for six-day flight were planted and investigated. Results showed that mutations could be induced in the first generation (M 1). Five tall mutants were found in DongnongV 7 variety, and the average height of the mutants was 31% taller than that of the control. Other traits such as the panicle length were also remarkably different from the control. In the second generation (M 2), various changes of traits were observed in all 11 varieties, including the height, heading date, leaf color, leaf shape, flag leaf angle, awns, panicle length, panicle type, rice shape (length–width ratio), and maturity. The mutation rate for the changes of the plant height and of the rice color (purple) varied from 0.05% to 0.52% among ten varieties except Xixuan-1. Changes of the height, fresh weight, dry weight, and culm width of the five DongnongV 7 tall mutants were observed in the progeny individually. By using the AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism) method, 21 pairs of primers were employed and the mutated loci rate of the genome in 10 M 2 mutants from 10 varieties was found between 1.7% and 6.2%. In the third generation (M 3), many traits, such as the awn length, main panicle exertion date and plant height, were still segregated widely and diversely. In addition, the leaf color and awn color varied in the progenies of purple rice mutants. Our study suggested that spaceflight induced mutations were dependent on different rice varieties.