The Genetic Nature of Mutational Changes Arising in the Form-Formation Process of Wheat

Abstract

Increasing the yield of wheat by improving its genotype is one of the most pressing problems of agriculture and the economy. Currently, the usage of traditional breeding methods and the results of genetic investigations, such as conduction of saturating crosses, remote hybridization and experimental mutagenesis, increases the efficiency of producing genetically modified and enriched forms of wheat. In field and under controlled laboratory conditions, the effect of a surfactant on the heritable characteristics of 10 varieties of spring soft wheat was studied. After processing of wheat seeds with an aqueous surfactant solution (0.1%), we could observe the inherited changes, which are manifested in the appearance in M1, M2, F2 and BC1 of tall, potent plants with productive bushiness and various morphological characteristics that differ from the original varieties. The effect of surfactants is manifested on the morphological features of plants: bushiness, crankiness of the stem, anthocyanin stain color. During the process of meiosis, the spindle of the division of the metaphase plate, the coalescence of chr omosomes in MI, and the presence of empty (sterile) cells in AI and AII meiosis were observed. The signs of altered forms are stably transmitted in the M2 generation.