The Mutation Creation Station.

Natural spontaneous mutations result in the genetic diversity in the crop species. To augment the genetic diversity, here, we employed chemical mutagen, ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) to induce point mutations in different crop species. Mutation breeding methods have long been utilized to develop novel and improved agronomic characteristics in numerous cultivars grown worldwide. Mutagenesis increases the genetic biodiversity available in crops for future enhancement and is increasingly used for gene identification and gene function studies. We have developed a high-throughput EMS mutagenesis method in our laboratory, which has shown to be successful in cotton. This 2014 study, we extended our study to other crop species that grow well in Texas, including pima cotton, upland cotton (Atlas, Hammer), corn (MbsT, 78371A), peanuts (TamRun OL12, Schubert), soybeans (Jake), guar (Matador, Lewis), wheat (TX 99U8544, TX 11D3039), and Arabidopsis (cesa 1&3 double mutant). M₀ Seeds were imbibed in aerated distilled water (16 h) and treated with 3.0 % v/v EMS to create the M₁ generation (1% for Arabidopsis). M₁ seeds, excluding Arabidopsis, were hand planted at the Texas Tech University Quaker Research Farm. Arabidopsis seed was planted into soil flats and grown under glass house conditions. M₂ seed was harvested from each plant and formed a bulk population that will be used in future screening experiments. We anticipate that the material generated in these experiments will be available for the next decade for phenotyping, genotyping and functional characterization.