Amateur plant mutation breeding?

[GreenMan]

Is there any simple way one can increase rate of mutations in plants? I'm talking about some method that anyone could easily do at home.I was thinking about heat shock,that is,treating seeds with heat shocks just before they germinate.I know there are fancy ways of doing this such as the use of mutagenic chemicals(EMS,DMS,sodium azide...) and radiation,but those are out of ordinary person's reach.The reason I thought heat shocks might work is because I found (maybe)mutant/chimera of a pursulane in my greenhouse,which is varieated(though this might be a result of viral infection).The plants in the greenhouse were exposed to extreme high temperatures by mistake.

Another intresting thing I found is a varigated grass,and it was in the part of the yard in which a slug poison was used,metaldehyde,possibly showing that through metabolic pathways in the plant or other chmical reactions it might become a mutagen.So does anyone know,if heat shock or metaldehyde can cause mutations? And are there any methods to increase mutation rates that anyone can use at all?

[RyGuyFly]

Great question. I thought of this myself. Intentionally inducing mutations in plants and animals has been done. But im unsure how to go about it in a safe way at home. I don't think heat shock or metaldehyde are mutation producing agents, but who knows. The plants pictured where physically changed but that's not to say they would transmit that change to offspring.

 

I found this website on diy glow plants to be interesting.

 

http://makezine.com/2013/05/16/diy-synthetic-biology-making-your-own-glowing-plants/

 

Even if you didn't use glow genes and viruses as mentioned in the article you might be able to use the same process with a mutagen or carcinogen.

 

Here they exposed seeds to UV light radiation: https://www.arabidopsis.org/ais/1965/fujii-1965-aaglz.html

 

I love this stuff.

[GreenMan]

Great question. I thought of this myself. Intentionally inducing mutations in plants and animals has been done. But im unsure how to go about it in a safe way at home. I don't think heat shock or metaldehyde are mutation producing agents, but who knows. The plants pictured where physically changed but that's not to say they would transmit that change to offspring.

 

I found this website on diy glow plants to be interesting.

 

http://makezine.com/2013/05/16/diy-synthetic-biology-making-your-own-glowing-plants/

 

Even if you didn't use glow genes and viruses as mentioned in the article you might be able to use the same process with a mutagen or carcinogen.

 

Here they exposed seeds to UV light radiation: https://www.arabidopsis.org/ais/1965/fujii-1965-aaglz.html

 

I love this stuff.

 

Hey thanks for your reply,I find the articles you provided amazing,I had no idea you can actually order genes lol,I wonder if I can get my hands on some other ones other than the gene for glow.But my knowledge about genetics is very limited,I don't have the education in this area although I'm constantly reading about it on various sites on the internet.

Mutation breeding is simple enough I can do it myself,however the problem is getting the chemicals and materials I need.

What caught my eye is the UV light,I think I can definitely get that.In my opinion mutation breeding is all about how many seeds/cells/plantlets you expose,because the mutations are so random and largely deletorius.UV light has it's drawbacks as it mostly doesn't penetrate seeds,but I bet it can penetrate germinating pollen and seeds of plants that have very tiny ones,like orchids and begonias,and could also do wonders on fern spores and gametophytes.The best aplication of UV would of course be on the growing tissue culture,but I can't get the chemicals I need for it.

Of the chemical mutagens I found nitrous acid to be quite easy to synthesise at home from home chemicals and comerical nitrogen fertilizers.What I would like to try is a combination of chemical and physical mutagens.

Anyway thanks again,and hope more will come do discuss on the topic! Happy mutagenesis

 

As for the plants I posted,I already got their seeds,they have a dormancy period so it will take some time until i see their offspring,but seeing how seeds of that grass are vareigated too I think these mutations might be heritable.I'm actually hoping of getting a few complete albinos of that grass because I find albino plants very cool and would like to find a way to keep them alive.

 

Lol ok I have to edit one more time xD

I was thinking of another way of inducing mutations.By electrolysis.I would soak the seeds in water which has a small amount of solvents in it to make it elcetrically conductive.When the seeds are fully rehydrated,a high voltage current would be applied through the water.The idea is to have large amount of groups,to experiment with different voltages and duration of applied current.What do you guys think of this?

Edited September 7, 2015 by GreenMan

[John Cuthber]

Given the amount of UV in sunlight, imagine what would happen if UV was good at causing mutations in plants.

If the offspring of those variegated plants are also striped, how will you know if it's a mutation or a viral effect?

[GreenMan]

Given the amount of UV in sunlight, imagine what would happen if UV was good at causing mutations in plants.

If the offspring of those variegated plants are also striped, how will you know if it's a mutation or a viral effect?

 

Most seeds germinate under soil and thus are protected from the UV radiation when most vunerable.Also,at the ground level UV portion of the sun radiation is only ~3%.

About the variegated plants,well I can go and try to infect healthy plants and see if they develop variegation.For the grass I am 99% sure that it's genetic,because I doubt the virus would produce patterns seen in the photo.As for the pursulane much remains unknown.

Edited September 8, 2015 by GreenMan

[GreenMan]

Well,I got one 8W germicidal UV tube.I have no idea if it will do the job.These tubes are extremely difficult to find,and when you find one,it's 10x more expensive than a regular fluorescent tube,even though it's just a regular tube without the inner coating...

The weird thing is that it actually glows dimly,and I don't notice any common fluorescent materials glowing under it,though it's own light might be interfering with what can be seen.

The first thing I'm going to do is see if this thing actually has any UV power in it,if it does,it should kill most of the seedlings that sprouted in the dark after 30min exposure.I'll be back in a couple of days witht the results.

[Endy0816]

From the description and pictures sounds like Chlorosis.

Edited October 7, 2015 by Endy0816

[John Cuthber]

Well,I got one 8W germicidal UV tube.I have no idea if it will do the job.These tubes are extremely difficult to find,and when you find one,it's 10x more expensive than a regular fluorescent tube,even though it's just a regular tube without the inner coating...

The weird thing is that it actually glows dimly,and I don't notice any common fluorescent materials glowing under it,though it's own light might be interfering with what can be seen.

The first thing I'm going to do is see if this thing actually has any UV power in it,if it does,it should kill most of the seedlings that sprouted in the dark after 30min exposure.I'll be back in a couple of days witht the results.

 

You do know that the light from one of those can damage your eyes, don't you?

[GM11]

You do know that the light from one of those can damage your eyes, don't you?

When he is able to open his eyes again and they stop weeping, I bet the answer will be yes. That is the wrong wave lengh of light BTW, use around 235. You can tell theese tubes because they have two end with a very short cury wire that goes across the terminals at both ends. They can take some striking up because of lengh of the tube and the gap between. DO NOT EVER Look at the light from these tubes without the correct eye wear and filter in place.

Edited October 12, 2015 by GM11

[Curious Monkey]

Take this with a grain of salt, but I have read about apple farmers that were experimenting with seed mutation techniques to produce a new variety of apple.  One technique that stood out was soaking seeds in coconut water. I forgot whether it was for 3 days or 3 hours, but I would love to hear results from anyone that had the space and resources to conduct an experiment to confirm whether this is merely a wives-tale, or is there any validity to this farmer's folk lore.

[StringJunky]

I had a read around and it seems to be a growth promoter and protects against mechanisms that might cause mutagenesis and general cellular damage in plants and seeds. It might be part of the process in preparing seeds for mutagenesis but not as the actual agent that causes it. Have a read of this and you'll see what I mean.

http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/14/12/5144/pdf

Edit: Added Link

Edited August 9, 2017 by StringJunky

[Curious Monkey]

Thank you for the link.  I will check it out indeed. 

[StringJunky]

23 minutes ago, Curious Monkey said:

Thank you for the link.  I will check it out indeed. 

If you fancy a not too long primer on plant mutation breeding this was quite good. There's a chart near the beginning showing  the various methods of inducing mutations. There's list of chemicals used as well in that chart. Corrected that link in the previous post. It should work now.

http://www.fnca.mext.go.jp/english/mb/mbm/pdf/04_MutationBreedingManual.pdf

Edited August 9, 2017 by StringJunky

[Curious Monkey]

Thanks again, I look forward to reading the document, looks very informative.  If I find anything of interest I will share it here.