Characterization of highly efficient heavy-ion mutagenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana

Background Heavy-ion mutagenesis is recognised as a powerful technology to generate new mutants, especially in higher plants. Heavy-ion beams show high linear energy transfer (LET) and thus more effectively induce DNA double-strand breaks than other mutagenic techniques. Previously, we determined the most effective heavy-ion LET (LETmax: 30.0 keV μm-1) for Arabidopsis mutagenesis by analysing the effect of LET on mutation induction. However, the molecular structure of mutated DNA induced by heavy ions with LETmax remains unclear. Knowledge of the structure of mutated DNA will contribute to the effective exploitation of heavy-ion beam mutagenesis.