Mutational effects of carbon ions near the range end and development of an efficient mutagenesis technique using ion beams

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 the range end, especially in plants. We analyzed the mutations occurred in the Arabidopsis gene with the emphasis on large deletions. Arabidopsis seeds obtained by crossing the wild type with mutant were used as a material. The DNA markers that can distinguish the wild type and sequence were used to detect deletions. The carbon ions near the range end induced deletions ( 6.7 kb) more frequently by 6 times than 208 MeV carbon ions.