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Breeding of four-leaf white clover (Trifolium repens L.) through 60Co gamma-ray irradiation

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Abstract

Four-leaf white clover is not found easily in nature due to its low appearance rate (1 in 10,000). Because people believe that it brings good luck and like to either keep it or present it to a loved one, it has commercial and ornamental value. To breed four-leaf clover, we exposed its flowers to γ-rays at the pollination stage. The M1 seeds produced following doses at 25–100 Gy showed an approximately 74% germination rate, with seedling survival at 46%. In the M1 generation of plants irradiated within that dose range, we found an increased frequency of four leaflets. One of them, Jeju Lucky-1 (JL-1), had a frequency of about 60%. To see whether that mutation was somaclonal or genetic, we observed its M2 generation and found that such a phenotype reappeared. Although our results demonstrated that the irradiation of fully mature flowers led to a higher frequency of 4-leaflets, we could not clearly explain the genetic mechanism involved. We suggest that JL-1 is valuable as a new variety, without further genetic fixation, because white clover can be propagated vegetatively by stolons.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Priscilla Licht for critical proofreading of the manuscript. This work was supported in part by grants from the Bio Green 21 Program (Code 20070301034033) and from the Korean Research Foundation (KRF-2007-412-J05503). The authors thank the Applied Radiological Science Research Institute of Cheju National University for providing γ-ray irradiation equipment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Subtropical Horticulture Research Institute, Cheju National University, Jeju, 690-756, South Korea

    In-Ja Song, Hong-Gyu Kang, Tae-Woong Bae, Pyung-Ok Lim & Hyo-Yeon Lee

  2. Faculty of Biotechnology, Cheju National University, Jeju, 690-756, South Korea

    Ji-Yeon Kang, Hae-Deun Kim, Taiji Adachi & Hyo-Yeon Lee

  3. Radiation Technology Institute, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Jeongeup, 580-185, South Korea

    Si-Young Kang

  4. Department of Science Education, Cheju National University, Jeju, 690-756, South Korea

    Pyung-Ok Lim

  5. Institute for Plant Breeding R & D, Ltd., 1-46-901, Hama 5-Chome, Tsurumi-Ku, Osaka, 538-0035, Japan

    Taiji Adachi

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  1. In-Ja Song
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  2. Hong-Gyu Kang
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  3. Ji-Yeon Kang
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  4. Hae-Deun Kim
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  9. Hyo-Yeon Lee
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Correspondence to Hyo-Yeon Lee.

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I.-J. Song and H.-G. Kang contributed equally to this work.

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Song, IJ., Kang, HG., Kang, JY. et al. Breeding of four-leaf white clover (Trifolium repens L.) through 60Co gamma-ray irradiation. Plant Biotechnol Rep 3, 191–197 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-009-0091-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-009-0091-x

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