Evaluation of induced chlorophyll-deficient mutants of soybean

摘要

Major efforts have been made to isolate mutants chemically or through mutagenic radiation which could be useful in studies on genetics, breeding, physiology, and biochemical research. When using the mutation breeding technique, one should obtain chlorophyll-deficient mutants easily. Benedict (1972) reported that the chlorophyll deficiency in most of these mutants could lack the well defined grana structure of the chloroplasts. A possible mechanism to explain the chlorophyll abnormalities has been suggested on the basis of the decrease in malate dehydrogenase (MDH) activity (Bidlack et al., 1991; Elmer et al.,1994). Recently it was reported that conditional lethality involved a cytoplasmic mutant and chlorophyll-deficient malate dehydrogenase mutants in soybean (Palmer, 1992; Minor and Palmer, 1994). These conditional lethal genotypes were suggested to be unique biological materials to characterize the interaction between organelle and nuclear genomes.