Heritable effects of 5-azacytidine treatments on the growth and development of flax (Linum usitatissimum) genotrophs and genotypes.

Seed of flax (Linum usitatissimum) were treated for short durations with 5-azacytidine and the direct and heritable effects of the treatments on plant growth and development in general and, more specifically, on the contrasting phenotypes of Durrant's large and small genotrophs were examined. 5-Azacytidine induced a reduction in the height of the plants grown from treated seed. Twenty-two percent of the first generation progeny of these plants also had short phenotypes and, in most cases, the short phenotype was stably and uniformly inherited by the second generation progeny of the short, first generation plants. Treatment also induced a marked decrease in the flowering age in a few of the first generation plants that was also transmitted to their second generation progenies. The effects seen in the progeny generations suggest that most, if not all, of the heritable changes induced by the treatment are epigenetic. Several differences were seen between the large and small genotrophs, which indicate that the genome of the small genotroph is less susceptible, than the genome of the large genotroph, to 5-azacytidine induced heritable alterations.