Cape hyacinth (Galtonia candicans) is a geophytic herbaceous perennial from South Africa. It produces large inflorescences of pendulous white flowers during mid to late summer, followed by capsules filled with copious amounts of seed. The species has potential as a low-water-use landscape plant, but lodging and excessive seed production, which pose a risk of escape or invasion, are issues that should be addressed before marketing. Ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) is a chemical mutagen known to induce usable mutations including dwarfing and sterility. We exposed seeds of cape hyacinth to increasing concentrations of EMS (0%, 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%, and 1%). Increased concentrations of EMS resulted in a linear decrease in seed germination when not exposed to a presoak treatment in water before exposure to EMS. No seedlings survived or were viable to field plant at 0.6%, 0.8%, or 1%. Resulting plants were field planted in 2013 and evaluated during 2014 and 2015. In both years, the inflorescence height at first flower, average seed number per capsule, and percent lodging were reduced in EMS-treated plants compared with controls. In 2015, pollen staining was evaluated and was reduced from 83% in control to less than 3% in the 0.4% treatment. Our study demonstrated that EMS is a viable option to reduce height and decrease seed set in cape hyacinth.
effective tool for crop improvement, and more than 2250 mutant cultivars have been released worldwide ( Ahloowalia et al., 2004 ). Artificial mutation induction can be carried out using physical and chemical mutagens and mutation induction with radiation was
). Improvements in mutant varieties of different crop species have been used widely in cultivation ( Kharkwal and Shu, 2009 ; Mohan Jian and Suprasanna, 2011 ). EMS is a commonly used chemical mutagen in plants and has become a primary resource for development of
physical mutagens to plant breeding was quickly recognized ( Gates, 1930 ). Approximately two decades later, the first chemical mutagens were discovered in the United Kingdom and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( Auerbach and Robson, 1946 ; Rapoport
variegation and landscape performance that can extend the ornamental appeal of butterfly bush to the spring and early summer periods before the start of flowering. Origin ‘Summer Skies’ resulted from seed that was mutagenized using the chemical mutagen ethyl
potentially harmful chemical mutagens and carcinogens ( Ferruzzi and Blakeslee, 2007 ; Natsume et al., 2004 ). The effects of N supply on plant growth are well understood, and most economically important specialty crops have recommended rates for optimal
barriers exist to conventional breeding methods ( Donini and Sonnino, 1998 ). Although in vitro culture alone has produced many spontaneous mutations or somaclonal variants ( Veilleux and Johnson, 1998 ), the use of chemical mutagens combined with in vitro
been used successfully in several plants including Dendrobium ( Khatri et al., 2011 ; Khosravi et al., 2009 ; Kumar et al., 2011 ; Mostafa and Alfrmawy, 2011 ). Mutations can be induced by either radiation or chemical mutagens. The most commonly
mutants in Nigella sativa L. using irradiation and chemical mutagens Egypt. J. Plant Breed. 19 257 272 Evans, D.A. Sharp, W.R. Flick, C.E. 1981 Growth and behavior of cell culture: Embryogenesis and organogensis, p. 45–113. In: T.A. Thorpe (ed.). Plant
) and disease resistance ( Ge et al., 2015 ) with high feasibility and high availability. EMS is a conventional chemical mutagen that can produce many gene mutations (point mutations) with few chromosomal disruptions ( Perera et al., 2015 ). EMS can be