Plant mutagenesis can be artificially induced using nuclear techniques, such as gamma or ion beam irradiations, as well as using chemical mutagens. Understanding the genetic control of plant mutagenesis is vital for the proper application and manipulation for enhancing genetic variation and plant mutation breeding. This project aims to identify and characterize genes involved in mutagenesis in crop plants using recently emerging molecular and genomics tools, to determine their function in mutagenesis caused by different mutagens using genetic variants deficient of these gene, and to find out the spectrum of mutations induced by various mutagens particularly of mutagenic irradiations.
To understand the mechanisms of mutagenesis and molecular genetic features of induced mutation in plants, to provide the scientific basis for developing more efficient mutation techniques and their proper use for crop improvement.
To isolate and characterize genes involved in mutagenesis and find out types of mutations induced by various physical mutagens in studied crop plants; to generate mutants deficient in DNA repair pathways in crops and assess their usefulness for efficiency enhancement of mutation induction.
The biological resources generated through the project can be used for further understanding of the mutagenesis process and for enhancing the efficiency of mutation induction. These, in turn, will transform plant mutation breeding into a knowledge-based, state of the art technology for crop improvement, and hence promote the use of nuclear techniques for developing superior varieties that can better adapt to climate change and produce more and better foods.
Improved protocols that has been developed for mutation screening and application will be dessiminated for use by Member States
The CRP has generated a vast amount of knowledge of the biological control of mutagenesis in crop plants, which will enable plant researchers and breeders to use mutation techniques more efficiently.
The CRP has also given a better understanding of the spectrum of mutations induced by various mutagens