MUTATION INDUCTION
MUTATION INDUCTION To artificially induce hereditary changes in plants, either physical or chemical agents are used. Ionizing radiation is a widely used physical agent to treat the seeds and other plant material of crops to create heritable mutations. Natural means to induce genetic diversity have been exploited for many millennia to improve major food crops. However, the frequency of such mutations is insufficient to meet current needs. One of the most important breakthroughs in the history of genetics was the discovery that mutations can be induced by physical and chemical mutagens (agents that change the genetic material of an o...