Abstract

Anthuriums are one of the most popular ornamental plants in Thailand. Hence, more attractive cultivars of plants are needed to promote its cultivation industry. This study aimed to produce a new cultivar of Anthurium andreanum through mutation techniques using gamma radiation. Multiple shoots of three-month-old 'Angle' were acute irradiated with gamma ray at a dose of 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 gray. Percentage of survival shoots tended to decrease with the increasing doses. Shoots irradiated at 40 and 50 gray could not survive after culturing in M<inf>1</inf>V<inf>2</inf> (4 months). Gamma radiation at 19.99 gray gave 50% of survival rate (LD<inf>50</inf>). Nonirradiated shoots in M<inf>1</inf>V<inf>1</inf> to M<inf>1</inf>V<inf>4</inf> showed the highest percentage of shoot induction, number of shoot per explant, plant height, number of leaves, leaf length and leaf width, significant difference from irradiated shoot. Within irradiated treatments, shoots treated with 10 gray showed all of the mentioned characteristics of higher quality or quantity than the others. In contrast, they had the lowest number of chloroplast, stomata concentration, length and width of stomata and guard cell. At M<inf>1</inf>V<inf>4</inf> (8 months), plants induced from non-irradiated shoots produced normal leaves, but plants induced from shoots of 10 gray produced the highest percentage of mosaic leaf, significantly different from the other doses. Genetic variations of mutation plants were investigated by AFLP technique. A total of twenty primers were used. Results showed that only ER-ACA/MS-CAG primer presented polymorphism of DNA banding in mosaic leaves comparing to normal leaves of the irradiated plants. There was no different characteristic found in normal leaves of both irradiated and non-irradiated plants. The mutation plants with mosaic leaves are potentially cultivated as a new Anthurium cultivar.