Mutational effects of carbon ions near range end in Arabidopsis

Hase, Yoshihiro; Yoshihara, Ryohei; Nozawa, Shigeki; Narumi, Issei

The accelerated heavy ions deposit most of their energy close to the end of their range. Little is known about the mutational effects of ion beams near range end, especially in plants. Here, we carried out several experiments to characterize mutational effects of carbon ions near range end in plants. Out results suggested the possibility that large structural alterations, which cannot be detected by plasmid rescue, were frequently induced by the carbon ions near range end. It was also suggested that the carbon ions near range end induce much irreparable DNA lesions. Analysis using locus suggested that ion beams with very high LET frequently induce large deletions in Arabidopsis genome.