Screening for High-Growth Mutants in Sporophytes of Undaria pinnatifida Using Heavy-Ion Beam Irradiation

In Undaria pinnatifida, an effective method for mutant screening in sporophytes has not been established. The present study developed a novel mutant screening method for Undaria sporophyte by combining gametophyte mutagenesis with heavy-ion beam and land-based tank culture system. When we irradiated gametophytes and sporophytes with carbon- and argonion beams, survival rates of the female gametophytes and the sporophytes decreased with increasing dose. However, those of the male gametophyte did not decrease after both of the irradiations. Mutant screening during the sporophyte development was performed by using a land-based tank culture system. High-growth plants were selected in the first mutant (M-1) population derived from the irradiated materials. We successfully obtained mutant candidates with higher growth than the wild type in the M-2 generation obtained from brother-sister inbreeding of selected M-1 plants. Four high-growth mutant candidate lines were selected from M-2 populations of 48 lines. The mutant candidates were derived from 3 lines of the gametophyte irradiation and 1 line of the sporophyte irradiation, suggesting that the materials for the irradiation are applicable for mutant induction. The mutant screening method and the selected mutant candidates would advance the breeding and molecular biology in U. pinnatifida.