Morphological, cytological and molecular variations induced by gamma rays in Chrysanthemum morifolium ‘Donglinruixue’

The current study investigated the effects of gamma radiation on the death rate, morphological traits and meiotic abnormalities in ground-grown chrysanthemum ‘Donglinruixue’, and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were used to identify the DNA polymorphism among mutants. The results showed that the death rate significantly increased with increase in radiation dose. Semi-lethal (LD50) dose was approximately 35 Gy. Compared with unirradiated control, plant growth was significantly inhibited. After irradiation, a series of morphological variations and cytological aberrations occurred in radiated plants. The peak in variation frequency appeared at 35 Gy. In total, ISSR analysis produced 72 scorable bands, of which 64 (88.89%) were polymorphic. The current study demonstrated that gamma irradiation generates a sufficient number of induced mutations and that ISSR analysis offered a useful molecular marker analysis for the identification of mutants.