Ion beam genetic-technology for modification of rice phenotypes

Abstract Ion beam genetic-technology (IBGT) extends ion beam technology to genetic modification of biological living materials aiming at improving biological species properties by ion-beam-induced mutation breeding. In this work, ion beam implantation of rice seeds was operated using a home-developed vertical compact ion implanter which was featured with simple structure, easy operation, high beam intensity and broad beam irradiation, particularly for IBGT applications. Many ten thousands of seeds of two selected local rice varieties were bombarded with 30-kV and 50-kV accelerated mixed molecular and atomic nitrogen ions to fluences ranging from 1 × 10 16 to 4 × 10 16 ions/cm 2 . The ion bombardments in 34,000 rice seeds of the two famous Thai rice varieties resulted in broad-spectrum mutation induction found in 91 rice mutants with phenotypic modifications and grain qualities such as photoperiod insensitivity, short in stature and changes in size of rough seed and brown rice, color of brown rice, proximate compositions and antioxidant capacities. This paper reports details of the results and exhibits evidence of the rice developments.