Sodium azide mutagenesis resulted in a peanut plant with elevated oleate content

ABSTRACT

Screening of peanut seeds resulting from 0.39 percent sodium azide treatment with NIRS calibration equation for bulk seed samples identified a plant with more than 60 percent oleate. Oleate content in individual seeds of the plant, as predicted by NIRS calibration equation for intact single peanut seeds, ranged from 50.05 percent ~ 68.69 percent. Three seeds with >60 percent oleate thus identified were further confirmed by gas chromatography. Multiple sequence alignments of the FAD2B gene from Huayu 22 (wild type) and peanut seeds with elevated oleate (mutant type) revealed a C281T transition in the coding region causing an I94T substitution in the oleoyl-PC desaturase, which may be responsible for reduction in the enzyme activity.