Generating homozygous mutant populations of barley microspores by ethyl methanesulfonate treatment

This study combined expertise in barley genetics and genomics from the research group led by Dr. Ping Yang (Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences) and that in barley microspore culturing led by Dr. Chenghong Liu (Biotech Research Institute, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences), in order to address the time- and space-cost issue in developing homozygous induced mutants, which are very important genetic resources in theoretical researches as well as pre-breeding.

The researchers applied chemical mutagenesis (ethyl methanesulfonate, EMS) on the medium of barley microspore culture, then producing the haploid mutations that could become homozygous in the regenerated plants which are double haploids (DH). The barley genotypic effect, as well as the mutagen dosage effect were estimated, in combining with evaluation of the genome-wide density of mutations via high-throughput sequencing, thus providing reference for future optimizing of this approach.

“Routinely with seed treatment, the heterozygosity of early-generation plant populations produced by chemically induced mutagenesis makes it difficult to identify phenotypic variation in quantitative or recessive traits”, told by Dr. Yang, that “Mutagenesis of isolated microspores is able to produce DH lines with fixed homozygous mutations, and the plants with phenotypic alterations had been recognized at a very early generation.”

“Moreover, millions of haploids can be treated in a highly space-saving manner”, Dr. Liu added, “Combining induced mutagenesis with the microspore culture would largely speed up developing novel genetic resources which are applicable in pre-breeding.”

Some scientists commented, “In addition to generating barley population with thousands of homozygous mutants, this research provided an effective way for development of novel genetic resources and could be a valuable reference for practice in other crops.”

See the article:

Generating homozygous mutant populations of barley microspores by ethyl methanesulfonate treatment

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42994-023-00108-6