Development of an efficient mutagenesis technique using ion beams: Toward more controlled mutation breeding

Ion beams have been used as a mutagen to improve the efficiency of plant mutation breeding. Mutation breeding is sometimes perceived as a random process. In this review, we describe our recent progress in developing a more efficient mutagenesis technique using ion beam irradiation combined with sucrose pretreatment or subsequent re-irradiation. To shorten the time required for breeding new cultivars of cyclamen, we identified anthocyanin biosynthesis genes and examined the effectiveness of PCR screening of irradiated deletion-mutant candidates at early growth stages. We believe this research is a step toward more efficient and controlled mutation breeding using ion beams.