A crinkly leaf and delay flowering mutant of tobacco obtained from recoverable satellite-flown seeds

Dry seeds of Nicotiana tabacum (L) cv. K346 were flown with a recoverable satellite, the Chinese “Shen Zhou III” for 162 h. After spaceflight, a crinkly leaf and delay flowering mutant of tobacco (T-cldf), which phenotype differed from the ground control (K346), was obtained from the seedlings after 48 d of the recoverable satellite-flown seeds germination. Major characteristics of T-cldf phenotype included crinkly leaf with outgrowth of the adaxial surface among the secondary veins and delay flowering. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis showed that five polymorphic bands were detected between T-cldf and ground control. The results suggested that recoverable satellite-flown condition could bring inheritable mutagenic effects on tobacco seeds and maybe used as a tool for accelerating the progress in tobacco breeding.