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. 2022 Jan 7;23(2):654.
doi: 10.3390/ijms23020654.

Frequency and Spectrum of Mutations Induced by Gamma Rays Revealed by Phenotype Screening and Whole-Genome Re-Sequencing in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Frequency and Spectrum of Mutations Induced by Gamma Rays Revealed by Phenotype Screening and Whole-Genome Re-Sequencing in Arabidopsis thaliana

Yan Du et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Genetic variations are an important source of germplasm diversity, as it provides an allele resource that contributes to the development of new traits for plant breeding. Gamma rays have been widely used as a physical agent for mutation creation in plants, and their mutagenic effect has attracted extensive attention. However, few studies are available on the comprehensive mutation profile at both the large-scale phenotype mutation screening and whole-genome mutation scanning. In this study, biological effects on M1 generation, large-scale phenotype screening in M2 generation, as well as whole-genome re-sequencing of seven M3 phenotype-visible lines were carried out to comprehensively evaluate the mutagenic effects of gamma rays on Arabidopsis thaliana. A total of 417 plants with visible mutated phenotypes were isolated from 20,502 M2 plants, and the phenotypic mutation frequency of gamma rays was 2.03% in Arabidopsis thaliana. On average, there were 21.57 single-base substitutions (SBSs) and 11.57 small insertions and deletions (InDels) in each line. Single-base InDels accounts for 66.7% of the small InDels. The genomic mutation frequency was 2.78 × 10-10/bp/Gy. The ratio of transition/transversion was 1.60, and 64.28% of the C > T events exhibited the pyrimidine dinucleotide sequence; 69.14% of the small InDels were located in the sequence with 1 to 4 bp terminal microhomology that was used for DNA end rejoining, while SBSs were less dependent on terminal microhomology. Nine genes, on average, were predicted to suffer from functional alteration in each re-sequenced line. This indicated that a suitable mutation gene density was an advantage of gamma rays when trying to improve elite materials for one certain or a few traits. These results will aid the full understanding of the mutagenic effects and mechanisms of gamma rays and provide a basis for suitable mutagen selection and parameter design, which can further facilitate the development of more controlled mutagenesis methods for plant mutation breeding.

Keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana; gamma rays; mutation; phenotype screening; whole-genome re-sequencing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Biological effect of gamma rays irradiation on M1 plants. All the data indicated the relative value to the control group. Each data point was mean ± standard error.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Phenotype of partial mutants induced by gamma ray irradiation. (a), Wild type; (by), mutants. For (x,y), the left plant is WT, the right plant is the mutants. Scale bars, 10 mm.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Summary of identified DNA sequence mutations. (A), Mutation type; (B), zygosity of mutations; (C) mutation frequency in M3 genome, data followed by the same alphabetic letters are not significantly different between any two of the mutation types (p > 0.05) by Duncan’s multiple range test; (D), the distribution of mutations on chromosomes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Nucleotide bias of mutations (A) and distribution of mutations on gene structure (B). Data of scatter plot are mean ± standard error from seven replicates. Data followed by the same alphabetic letters are not significantly different between any two of the mutation types (p > 0.05) by Duncan’s multiple range test.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Characteristics of SBSs and small InDels induced by gamma rays. (A), Categories of SBSs. (B), size distribution of InDels. Each data point was mean ± standard error from seven replicates. Data followed by the same alphabetic letters are not significantly different between any two of the mutation types ((p > 0.05) by Duncan’s multiple range test. (C), Characteristics of preferential sequences flanking the DNA mutations. (D), Distribution of the size of microhomology observed at Indels and SBSs. Details of flanking sequences are shown in Supplementary Tables S2 and S3.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Genes affected by gamma rays irradiation in Arabidopsis thaliana. (A), Number of genes affected in each line. (B) KEGG pathway and GO analysis of affected genes.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The mutation profile of mutations induced by gamma rays in Arabidopsis thaliana.

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