Influence of potassium cyanide on the azide mutagenesis in barley.

Abstract

The activity of potassium cyanide (KCN) alone or in combination with sodium azide (SA) on barley mutagenesis was studied in five different experiments. It was measured by frequencies of chlorophyll-deficient mutations per M1 spikes. The M1 plant sterility and lethality were also studied. In single treatments KCN showed no mutagenic activity, as well as a low level of injury in M1 plant sterility and lethality. On the other hand, SA treatments alone were highly effective for inducing both chlorophyll mutations and sterility, but at a low level of lethality. KCN in post- and simultaneous treatments combined with SA treatment has produced a marked reduction of the frequencies of SA-induced chlorophyll-deficient mutations and sterility. The decrease was much less when KCN was pretreatment. None of the combined treatments produced high levels of M1 plant lethality.