Production of African violet mutants (Saintpaulia ionantha) using gamma radiation

Saintpaulia ionantha is a beautiful ornamental plant. to induce diversity by creating new genotypes of African violet in vitro Gamma ray and EMS were applied as physical and chemical mutagens respectively. Explants were cultured in MS medium containing 2 mg L-1 BA, 1 mg L-1 NAA, 30g L-1 sucrose and 7g L-1 agar. after two days they were treated with radiation (0, 20 and 40Gy) or EMS (0, 0.1, 0.3 and 0.6%). the dose of 40Gy and 0.3% and 0.6% of EMS reduced the regeneration of explants, the number of regenerated plantlets and leaves and caused enhanced variation and morphological changes. the color of leaves, their shapes and sizes were modified. afterwards genetic diversity of the mutant plants was investigated with ISSR marker. Eight primer pairs in PCR amplified different fragments of the genomic DNAs. Overall, 71 locations (bands) were scored. The dendrogram of cluster analysis using Jaccard coefficient and UPGMA algorithm showed high variability. The mutants were divided into 4 groups in similarity of 0.51%. Genetic similarity coefficient varied between 0.45-0.98 and 6 mutants were introduced based on morphological and molecular variations. the results showed in vitro mutagenesis of African violet by gamma radiation a suitable strategy to increase diversity.