Decoding technology to create rare forest orchids – Last post: Applying irradiation techniques to cause mutations in orchids

Nuclear Research Institute (headquartered in Da Lat city, Lam Dong province) is a leading unit in the field of agricultural biology in Vietnam’s atomic energy industry. In particular, radiation breeding is an area that has existed for a long time and developed to this day, currently applying irradiation to cause mutations in flowers, ornamental leaves and rare fake crane orchids.
Irradiation selects mutations

Technicians of the Center for Radiation Technology and Biotechnology (Nuclear Research Institute, based in Da Lat city, Lam Dong) next to a radioactive projector that causes mutations in plants. The Center for Radiation Technology and Biotechnology (Nuclear Research Institute) is a unit that regularly applies radiation techniques to select and create mutant varieties on plants. Especially in the past time, the orchid and bonsai market has been extremely active, many customers have come to the center to irradiate to mutate their plants. The irradiation process is quite quick, with the new technology Gama Cobalt irradiator, this process only takes about 1-2 minutes and is completely automatic. Immediately after, orchid seeds will be taken to the separation room to be cultured in nutrient solution for a certain time. After that, these plants were further isolated many times to select mutant morphologies different from the parent plant. Master Le Xuan Cuong, irradiation technician (Center for Radiation Technology and Biotechnology), said that the number of doses will vary depending on the sample provided by the customer such as tissue samples, branches, seedlings… “After irradiation, it will produce random mutations, beneficial or harmful, regardless of their will” – Master Cuong said. Currently, the Center’s Culture Room is storing many pseudo-crane orchid seedlings that have mutated on the stem and on the leaves. Specifically, the color of leaves and stems have turned white or purple. These are mutant forms that can be seen immediately, for flower color, you have to wait for the plant to grow and flower as usual. According to Mr. Le Van Thuc, Deputy Director of the Center for Radiation Technology and Biotechnology, for flower plants, by irradiation techniques, it is possible to select flower colors or select traits that are resistant to adverse conditions. environmental benefits such as preventing fungal and bacterial diseases on plants. “Compared to natural mutations, the probability is one in a thousand or one million, but using radioactive sources to cause mutations in plants will have a higher probability of hundreds, thousands of times,” – Mr. Thuc analyzed. Application on many plant varieties After irradiation, samples of the fake crane orchids were taken to the separation room to be cultured in nutrient solution for a certain time. Not only orchids, the Center for Radiation Technology and Biotechnology has tested irradiation to cause mutations on Forget-me-not Da Lat flowers, Torenia flowers, and Dendrobium orchids. The results have created many mutant lines in flower color and structure of stems and leaves with great differences compared to the mother plant. Through that, the Center has built up the basic processes of radiation breeding; selection of materials for irradiation, frequency of irradiation, propagation, experimental planting to screen for mutations at phenotypic level, identification of mutant lines at molecular level… According to Mr. Le Van Thuc, the Center’s orientation will continue to promote the field of plant biotechnology and plant breeding, rapid multiplication of plant varieties and conservation of valuable plant genetic resources; continue to develop radiation technology in the selection and breeding of key plant varieties, endemic varieties of Lam Dong province, focusing on selecting and creating new quality varieties on flower, fruit, ornamental and medicinal plants. The culture room of Radiation Technology and Biotechnology (Nuclear Research Institute) houses many mutant plants, which are mainly orchids. Currently, the Nuclear Research Institute has used irradiation techniques combined with In-vitro methods, applying in vitro flowering techniques to quickly select flower color mutations, shortening the selection time. filtering, reducing the cost of isolating mutant lines that previously had to be planted in the field for selection. At the same time, the Institute cooperates with many units throughout the country such as the Southern Fruit Institute, the Mekong Delta Rice Institute, the Central Highlands Agro-Forestry Research Institute, universities: Tra Vinh University, the University of Da Lat,… to handle mutant irradiation on many different crops. Mr. Do Minh Ngoc, Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Lam Dong province, said that irradiation is a tool and a technological solution for breeding that many parts of the world have implemented. However, the selection and maintenance of mutant traits is very important and requires time and experience for these plants to become a source of seeds for other production industries.