Heavy-ion beams have been used as an effective mutagen in plants. Various studies have extended our understanding of the mutagenic effects of heavy-ion beam irradiation on the plant genome. Heavy-ion beams can be characterized by the linear energy transfer (LET) value, and the LET-dependent mutagenic effects are observed in plant survival, mutation frequency, and mutation spectrum. When we integrate the results of the mutagenic effects obtained from experiments using different detection methods, we must consider a bias, depending on the experimental system. For example, the plant materials, developmental processes, and heredity of induced mutations must be considered. In this review, we organized the mutagenic effects from the perspective of irradiated plant materials and the heredity of the induced mutations.

The effects of exogenous polyamines were investigated in Hordeum vulgare L. Bülbül-89 exposed to drought stress about mitotic activity, chromosome behaviors, cell cycle, and total protein content. In this study, drought stress had a reducing effect on the mitotic index and caused chromosomal abnormalities. All of the polyamines applied under drought stress had reducing effects on them. Due to the cell cycle analysis, although the Spd application increased in the S phase compared to the control group, other polyamine groups had reducing effect. As a result of drought application alone, the G₁ and G₂ stages increased numerically compared to the control group, while after the PEG+polyamine applications, the G₁ stage decreased compared to its control. In PEG application alone, a 2-fold increase in total protein amount compared to the control group was observed, while PEG+polyamine applications showed a remarkable increase compared to its control. Consequently, the application of polyamines at the appropriate time and dose can greatly alleviate the negative effects of drought stress on plant growth and development.

Multicellular marine algae have a simple body structure composed of just a small number of basic cell types. However, the mechanism of their cellular differentiation and multicellular morphogenesis remains mostly unknown. The multicellular leafy seaweed Gayralia oxysperma is composed of blade cells and rhizoid cells. In axenic culture, this species loses its typical multicellular morphology because, upon shaking, the two cell types separate to form a loose mass composed of the two cell types. This fragile cell mass was used to isolate each cell type for culture experiments and examination of their growth properties. Artificially synthesized thallusin, a morphogenesis-promoting factor, was also tested for its effect on the cells. The isolated blade cells are divided to generate daughter cells displaying various differentiation patterns, whether in the presence or absence of thallusin. None of the tested rhizoid cells divided but they elongated greatly to over 1 mm in length during 10 d of culture. These observations indicate that blade cells maintain their totipotency, while the rhizoid cells lose their abilities to divide and differentiate into other cell types. This result is in contrast to findings with the previously well-studied Ulva, which shares similarities with Gayralia in leafy morphology and early development but its rhizoid and stem cells retain their totipotency, while its blade cells do not. Therefore, the morphogenesis system in Gayralia seems to be fundamentally different from that of Ulva and requires further investigation.

Stellaria media (L.) Vill is a widely utilized plant for both decorative and therapeutic purposes. Despite great biochemical characterization, knowledge of genetic variability is limited, and no DNA marker have been utilized to study the genetic diversity of populations to date. The genetic diversity of 65 S. media individuals from 13 groups was investigated using ten start codon targeted (SCoT) markers in this study. SCoT was shown to be a reliable marker system for genetic study in S. media due to its high polymorphic bands (96.38%), polymorphic information content (0.34), and allele number (1.38). For our genetic analysis, we employed the SCoT molecular marker with the following goals: 1—to look into genetic variation among and within S. media, 2—to find genetic groupings within these 13 chickweed populations. 3—to gather information on the genetic makeup of date chickweed populations. The findings demonstrated a significant level of genetic heterogeneity within populations.

Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague (Ajwan) is one of the most important industrial and medicinal plants which belongs to the family Apiaceae. A meiotic study of eight populations from Iran was performed. All populations were diploid n=9 (2n=2x=18) forming mainly bivalents with some amount of quadrivalent and hexavalent possibly due to the occurrence of heterozygote translocations. The ANOVA test of meiotic characters showed a significant difference (p＜0.05) in chiasma frequency as well as chromosome associations in Ajwan populations. Chromosome migration or cytomixis and syncyte formation and tripolar structure in telophase II were also reported for the first time in natural populations in Iran and led to diploid gamete formation or 2n pollen grains in almost all populations were studied. Cluster analysis of meiotic data showed the distinctness of the populations in their meiotic behavior.

Fritillaria stribrnyi Velen. (Liliaceae) grows naturally only in northwest Turkey (Turkish Thrace) and southern Bulgaria, and is threatened with extinction in the wild due to human pressure. In this paper, the megasporogenesis, megagametogenesis, and embryo sac development of F. stribrnyi were investigated using light microscopy. Buds and blooming flowers were collected from the plant’s natural habitats in the Ipsala district (Edirne, Turkey) from February to April of 2015 and fixed in ethanol: glacial acetic acid solution. Conventional paraffin embedding techniques were followed. Serial sections of the ovaries cut at 10–12 µm thickness were stained with alcian blue and nuclear fast red double staining. The ovary of F. stribrnyi is trilocular. The mature ovule is anatropous, tenuinucellate, and bitegmic. The archesporial cell differentiates directly into the megaspore mother cell. The megaspore mother cell undergoes regular meiotic division and a typical diagonal megaspore tetrad eventually form. The embryo sac of the species is eight-nucleated, a tetrasporic type, and followed the Fritillaria-type development. The egg cell and synergid cells are covered by a complete cellulosic wall in the mature embryo sac. Two of the antipodal cells degenerate before fertilization and the third cell shows a flattened structure. A haploid polar nucleus at the micropyle side comes with the second male nucleus toward the triploid one at the chalazal side after fertilization and triple fusion occurs.

Cytological studies in seven species of four genera of Commelinaceae from nature in Thailand revealed the following karyotypes: Callisia fragrans (striped leaves), 2n=12=6sm+6st; Commelina clavata, 2n=22=6m+10sm+6st; Co. erecta, 2n=56=22m+34sm; Co. obliqua 2n=30=8m+16sm+6st; Tradescantia fluminensis, 2n=12=6sm+6st; T. spathacea (green in all parts), 2n=14=6sm+8st; and Zebrina pendula, 2n=12=2m+6sm+4st. The chromosome numbers of Co. clavata, T. fluminensis, and T. spathacea (green in all parts) differed from previous studies. The NF of Co. clavata, Co. erecta, Co. obliqua and T. fluminensis were reported for the first time. Six species had karyotype formulae that were asymmetric and Co. erecta was the only one that was symmetric. The karyotypes of all species differ from those previously studied. The karyotypes of Co. clavata and T. fluminensis were studied for the first time.

Persicaria tinctoria is an annual indigo plant used for dyeing. The chromosome number is 2n=40 with x=10. Our objective is the induction of chromosome-doubled P. tinctoria to investigate the relation between indigo content and ploidy level for plant breeding. Octoploid P. tinctoria with 2n=80 was induced in vitro for the first time. Six fertile seeds from the plants with 2n=80 were grown in soil for seven months by open pollination. Their chromosome number showed that two were 2n=80 and four were 2n=60. The fertility of the plants with 2n=80 was extremely low and they have ceased finally 4 years later, while the plants with 2n=60 produced some seeds first two years and after the third year the strain with 2n=60 producing many seeds, was induced. The comparison of morphological and physiological characteristics between tetraploid and hexaploid plants showed that the guard cell size and seed size of hexaploid plants were larger than those of tetraploid plants, the indigo content per unit weight and pollen fertility of hexaploid plants were smaller than those of tetraploid plants and the hexaploid plants flowered later than tetraploid plants. The increase of indigo content in higher polyploid plants was not confirmed, however, the retardation of flowering of hexaploid plants may be a useful characteristic for indigo plant breeding.

The genus Litsea Lam. (Lauraceae) with about 400 species worldwide and in India it is represented by 44 taxa. Litsea ligustrina is listed as near threatened species by IUCN. The mitotic chromosome number 2n=24 and karyomorphology of L. ligustrina are reported for the first time. The karyotype formula is 12m and belonging to the 1A karyotype of the Stebbins category.

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is a common disease that accounts for most hearing loss worldwide. One of the most important drivers of SNHL is hair cell apoptosis or loss. Previous studies have shown that the high mitochondrial mass of hair cells in the newborn mouse, which diluted the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number, may result in the fragility of these cells. Our study aimed to verify previous research and identify the key genes that regulate excessive mitochondrial proliferation in hair cells via bioinformatic analysis. We measured the mitochondrial mass and mtDNA via immunofluorescence and fluorescence in situ hybridization in cochlear hair cells and supporting cells in P0 and P7 mice. Then we investigated the deep sequencing datasets in GSE60019 and used Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses to screen for potential differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between hair cells and supporting cells. We found that the mitochondrial mass of hair cells was significantly higher than that of supporting cells in P0 and P7 mice, and we found a total of 2414 DEGs overlapped between P0 and P7 mice. We then compared these results with published data and the GO knowledgebase, and selected 136 mitochondria-targeted genes for further analysis. Finally, we found four genes, mitochondrial ubiquitin ligase activator of NFKB 1 (Mul1), aarF domain containing kinase 1 (Adck1), ganglioside-induced differentiation-associated protein 1 (Gdap1), and dynamin 3 (Dnm3), which may lead to an increase of the mitochondrial mass in hair cells.