Application of atomic energy in agriculture

European Union

Description

Annual report 1967
Agricultural and fisheries research
Nuclear energy and safety
Target audience: Scientific

Sujets

• Primary sector of the economy
• Ionizing radiation
• Nuclear power
• Annual report
• EAEC
• Irradiation
• Sciences et techniques

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-UNION
• Nombre de lectures: 18
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 21 Mo

Extrait

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^■•WÊmvd"■-APPLICATION OF ATOMIC ENERGY M
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European Atomic Energy Community - EURATOM
Instituut voor Toepassing van Atoomenergie in de Landbouw - ITAL
APPLICATION OF ATOMIC ENERGY
IN AGRICULTURE
(Annual Report 1967)
1968
M L ECrp. Biblioth.
uru.
Association No. 003-61-5 BIAN
C.D.U. SUMMARY
The work reported was carried out at the Association's Institute in the
Netherlands as well as in other Institutes in the Community.
The results of work carried out in the final year of the Associations five year
contract with Euratom are reported under the following headings :
Mutation Breeding;
Improvement of mutagenic efficiency;
Food Preservation;
Genetic control of insect pests;
Related Physical Studies,
and Specific Nuclides in Plant and Soil.
The introduction reviews the results of the five year programme stressing
the important findings and outlining areas where a need exists for further
research on an international level.
KEYWORDS
FOOD
IRRADIATION
PRESERVATION
STORAGE CONTENTS
page
Introduction 1
Mutation "breeding 11
Irradiation as a tool for increasing variabi­
lity and producing desirable mutants 1
Other aspects of irradiation as a tool for
increasing variability in higher plants 28
Improvement of the mutagenic efficiency9
Efficiency of different mutagenic agents
Stage sensivity and chimerism 32
Studies specifically devoted to the chimera
problem 37
Studies devoted to the influence of biological
variables upon irradiation effects 43
Studies devoted to thee of environ­
mental variables upon irradiation effects
Analysis of the irradiation effect9
Cytological investigations 4
Geneticals 51
Biochemicals2
Culture techniques6
Preservation of food by means of radiation 58
Induction of male sterility in insects by means of
radiation 70
Related physical studies
Dosimetry
Instrument development 81
Nuclear techniques in agricultural research 83
The behaviour of specific nuclides in plant and
soil 92
Uptake studies on riceÎI
page
Uptake studies on "bean and corn ■.... 94
Migration studies in soil97
Ca uptake s , 100
Other activities102
Publications 105
Appendix1Meetings,symposia and study visits «...111
AppendixIIBoardofgovernors and advisors 113xIIIListofstaff114 INTRODUCTION
At the end of the first five year research programme of the
Association it is certainly useful and interesting to
summarize briefly the general conclusions and comments which
naturally emerge from the considerable amount of results and
research data obtained in the various projects involved.
With regard to MUTATION BREEDING per se and to the IMPROVEMENT
OF MUTAGENIC EFFICIENCY two obvious points need to be very much
emphasized. The first one is that irradiation is by no means
a miracle tool which can be used in all circumstances for all
practical purposes.
Ionizing rays are above all deleting agents which induce a
large amount of chromosomal aberrations and only few, if any,
intragenic mutations. Intragenic mutations are defined here as
mutations which transform a functional protein coding cistron
into a different but stilll cistron.
Ionizing rays should be hence considered as such and used for
direct practical purposes essentially in those cases when
elimination of specific genetic loci constitute the objective
of the plant breeder, especially when conventional breeding
methods fail (sterile vegetatively propagated plants) or are
unlikely to attain the aim in vegetatively propagated plants
which are highly' heterozygous. It is therefore not surprising
that the majority of the HO mutation breeding projects, started
since 1959 as cooperative programmes between the Association and
third parties, are dealing with vegetatively propagated (ornamental)
plants.
An example of an interesting use of radiation for mutation
induction in the case of vegetatively propagated plants is the
treatment of adventitious buds. These buds develop for instance
on isolated leaves and, as is shown in Saintpaulia and Strepto-
carpus, regenerate from only one (epidermal) cell.
This leads automatically to a high mutation frequency, a wide
mutation spectrum and avoids the chimera formation. In seed
propagated plants the absence of a correlation between visible
effects in the M. and mutation frequency in M' has been
demonstrated in tomato. Selection in the offspring of normal
looking, viable and fertile M' plants does not- lead to a reduced
mutation frequency but greatly increases the size of the M
progeny and therefore the number of mutant plants available for
further selection. The second point which also appears of
importance is the great dependance of mutation expressivity - 2 -
upon the internal and the external environment. This conclusion,
which stems from the work of many researoh scientists of the
Association, clearly underlines the need for a larger crossing
programme between mutant lines and their oontrols and for
performance testing under different environments.
Optimum conditions of growth "being often deleterious to the
relative Darwinian fitness of the mutant plant, it is logioal
to assume that irradiation may prove to be a more efficient
tool for extending the geographical area of cultivation of a
given crop than for improving yielding performances in the
habitat for which the species has been adapted and selected for
during a large number of years.
In addition there is the limited but very interesting possibility
of using irradiation in the framework of chromosomal engineering
(translocation technique and diploidization of polyploid orops)
and for induoing temporary or permanent changes in fertility and
compatibility relationships which may lead to apomixis, partheno­
genesis, androgenesis or to the removal of cross-barriers.
Vith regard to those studies which have been devoted to the
theoretical aspect of mutagenio efficiency and to the understanding
of the irradiation effect, all data obtained confirm and demonstrate
the tremendous complexity of the phenomena which are interrelated
with the effects of mutagenic agents. The systems and factors
involved in protection, sensitivity, repair and elimination
mechanisms are so numerous and so variable that no two criteria
of radiotolerance appear to be governed by the same factors and
that the relative effectiveness of an irradiation treatment varies
tremendously from species to species, stage to stage, environment
to environment, dose-rate to dose-rate and from one type of
irradiation source to another. These observations which must not
necessarily be considered as discouraging, certainly underline our
lack of understanding and knowledge in this field and suggest the
need for a concerted european effort in a methodological approach
to radiobiological studies with higher plants. Such a european
effort has been initiated during these first five years of common
research at the Association. It now remains to define and select h topics suitable to the six countries and to organize
rationally'and in a coherent way the basis'of the second european
effort.
Vith regard to the FOOD PRESERVATION it should first be emphasized
that there is growing concern about the biological burden added
to the human organism by the increased use of chemicals in the
food industry. This concern has caused many people to search for
ways of relieving this burden by employing methods of 'processing
and preservation of food that do not use chemicals. Radiation
preservation, being a'physical method, is naturally an important - 3 -
alternative since no chemical residue is left in the food.
When we further consider that "besides the development and
application of other methods in order to get the necessary-
increase of