Biological features of an early-maturity mutant of sweet sorghum induced by carbon ions irradiation and its genetic polymorphism

It is well known that heavy ions irradiation is characterized by a high linear energy transfer (LET) and relative biological effectiveness (RBE). These characters are believed to increase mutation frequency and mutation spectrum of plants or mammalian cells irradiated by heavy ions. Here we describe an early-maturity mutant of sweet sorghum induced by carbon ion irradiation. The growth period of this mutant was shortened by about 20 days compared to the wild type. The proline content of the mutant was increased by 11.05% while the malondialdehyde content was significantly lower than that of wild type. In addition, the RAPD analysis indicated that the percentage of polymorphism between the mutant KFJT-1 and the control KFJT-CK reached 5.26%. The gain of early-maturity might solve the problem in the northwest region of China where seeds of sweet sorghum cannot be mature because of early frost. The early-maturity mutant may be important for future space cultivation.

► Heavy ion beam irradiation is a powerful tool for plant breeding.
► An early-maturity mutant of sweet sorghum was induced by carbon ion irradiation.
► The agronomic and physiological performance of KFJT-1 was better than KFJT-CK.
► The early-maturity mutant may be important for future space cultivation.