Molecular analysis of carbon ion-induced mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana.

In order to elucidate the characteristics of the mutations induced by ion particles at the molecular level in plants, mutated loci in carbon ion-induced mutants of Arabidopsis were investigated by PCR and Southern blot analyses. In the present study, two lines of gl1 mutant and two lines of tt4 mutant were isolated after carbon ion-irradiation. Out of four mutants, one had a deletion, other two contained rearrangements, and one had a point-like mutation. From the present result, it was suggested that ion particles induced different kinds of alterations of the DNA and therefore they could produce various types of mutant alleles in plants.