Abstract
Many recent studies have been conducted on UV-induced DNA damage and its repair in higher plants. DNA repair systems in plants are divided broadly into two categories, photoreactivation catalyzed by two kinds of photolyase activities and light-independent repair pathways such as excision repair system and other means. In addition, there are mechanisms to protect against DNA damage by means of excluding UV-B by leaf waxes and absorbing UV-B by accumulating phenylpropanoid compounds in epidermal and subepidermal cells. However, the whole picture of UV-B resistance in a plant is hardly drawn. For the understanding, induction of UV-B mutants and their analyses are still indispensable. We attempted to produce novel UV-B mutants of Arabidopsis by using ion beams as a mutagen. Because ion beams have high-linear energy transfer (LET) compared with other forms of radiation and gives a superior ability to create mutations. Here, we present the isolation and characterization of new UV-B resistant and sensitive mutants to understand UV-B resistant mechanisms.
