molecular and morphological assessment of genetic variability induced by gamma radiation in canola

mutation induction is considered as an effective way to enrich plant genetic variation, particularly fortraits with a very low level of genetic variation. this research was conducted to assess genetic variationinduced by gamma radiation in m2 and m3 mutant lines of canola (brassica napus l.) by ssr and morphologicalcharacteristics and to identify useful mutants in terms of agronomic traits. sixty-two mutantlines derived from gamma mutagenesis and their wild-type progenitors (‘rgs003’ and ‘sarigol’ cvs)were used. twenty-five polymorphic ssr primers were used in this study. results of cluster analysisbased on both morphological traits comprising plant height, days to flowering, days to maturity, numberof pods/plant, number of seeds/pod, 1000-seed weight and seed yield/plant and ssr data revealed a separategrouping of mutant lines from control cultivars. ssr data analysis of mutant lines and controls demonstrateda considerable genetic variation among mutant lines, where 83% of primers generated polymorphicbands with 3.32 alleles per locus. the genetic distance calculated between mutant lines and theircontrols indicated a significant difference between mutant lines and controls. although both morphologicaland ssr markers successfully discriminated mutant lines from controls, ssr primers could furtherdiscriminate between the mutant lines derived from the related cultivar. mutant lines 24 derived from‘rgs003’ and 16 and 26 from ‘sarigol’ were considered as superior for breeding canola, which could beutilized in future genetic and breeding programs. distinct classification of genotypes based on agromorphologicaland ssr data in the present study implies that morphological and ssr markers reflecteddifferent aspects of genetic variation among mutant lines.