A color-leaf mutant with purple leaves, stems and petals was isolated from clones of Wandering Jew irradiated by 95.8 MeV/u carbon ion beam at Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMP). This is the first report on color-leaf mutant of Wandering Jew induced by carbon ions radiation.

White-flowered Wandering Jew is a perennial evergreen herb of Tradescantia, the whole plant remains green all the year round, except that petals were white. However, the mutated leaf induced by carbon ion beam radiation was a variegated chimera.

The superficial pigmentation pattern and proportion of pink and green marking on leaf lamina keep changing depending on temperature (Fig.1). Purple coloration also appeared on stem and petals. The concentration and histological distribution of leaf pigment were surveyed in wild type and mutant. In mutant, contents of total chlorophylls (Chl), chlorophyll a (Chla), chlorophyll b (Chl b) and carotenoids (Car) decreased significantly, while concentration of the anthocyanins was 6.2-fold higher than that of wild type (Fig.2).

Further composition analysis of anthocyanins by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) indicated that the purple pigmentation of leaves in mutant was caused by accumulation of petunidin anthocyanin. Microscopic examination showed that most petunidin anthocyanin accumulated in the lower epidermis, and little in vascular parenchyma of mutant, while there was no pigment in wild type. Meanwhile, in spongy parenchyma of mutant we observed little Chl, which the wild type abounds in.

In conclusion, the color-leaf mutant of Wandering Jew induced by irradiation of carbon ions was improved in ornamental value, which could contribute to variation in level, component and distribution of foliar pigment.

This research has been published on Nuclear Science and Techniques 2011, 2(22): 77–83.

The article link ishttp://dlib.cnki.net/KNS50/detail.aspx?dbname=CJFD2011&filename=HKXJ201102004.

Fig.1 Phenotypic comparisons of wild type and mutant of white-flowered wandering Jew(Image by IMP).

Fig.2  Foliar pigments of wild type and mutant of white-flowered wandering Jew in Nov. Highly significant differences were found between wild type and mutant in all pigments detected(Image by IMP).