The combined use of leaf irradiation and of the adventitious bud technique for inducing and detecting polyploidy, marker mutations and self-compatibility in clonal populations of Nicotiana alataLink and Otto

The method of vegetative propagation by adventitious bud formation on detached leaves has been used, in combination with radiation treatment, for obtaining self-compatibility mutations and marker mutations in two clonal populations derived from single S2S3plants of Nicotiana alata. Out of in all 345 individuals arisen from leaves exposed to various dosages of X-rays, 3 self-compatible and 3 marker mutants were selected, which maintain their phenotypes after several cycles of vegetative propagation. These results demonstrate that it is possible to recover, in a self-incompatible clone, mutant individuals which are characterized by the same genetic background as the mother plant and which are, consequently, free of the inbreeding effects usually resulting from the conventional methods of mutation induction and detection.