New chrysanthemum mutant varieties developed through ion beam irradiation technology

Zaiton, A.*; Affrida, A. H.*; Shakinah, S.*; Nurul Hidayah, M.*; Nozawa, Shigeki*; Narumi, Issey*; Hase, Yoshihiro; Ono, Yutaka

New chrysanthemum mutants were successfully developed from a collaborative project entitled "Generating New Ornamental Plant Varieties using Ion Beams" between Nuclear Malaysia and JAEA. These mutants, of Reagan Red and Pink varieties, were generated through a combination of ion beam irradiation and in vitro organ culture techniques. Chrysanthemum cultures were irradiated at different doses of carbon ions. The irradiated explants were grown to full plantlets and sub-cultured for four vegetative cycles before being planted in the glasshouses for morphological screenings. Eight new mutants were selected based on the uniqueness of their features.