Sodium Azide Induced Morphological and Molecular Changes in Persimmon (Diospyros Lotus L.)

Persimmon Diospyros lotus L. is an underutilized species, used as rootstock for Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) in many European countries. It has a potential for ornamental uses due to its diploid genome that suggests an easy mutation induction. This study was aimed at unravelling the effects of mutagenic sodium azide (in concentrations of 0.1% and 0.5%) on morphological characters (plant height, maximal leaf blade length, maximal leaf blade width and leaf petiole length) and molecular relations of treated accessions, based on AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism). In the M1 generation, the analysed characters of two-year old plants differed among the treatments. Sodium azide influenced persimmon stem and leaves in the opposite way, with increase up to 31.57% in plant height and decrease up to 30.33% in leaf petiole length. Changes in morphological characters were significant, that implies the importance of azide influence on the persimmon. Most genotypes treated with 0.1% azide were without significant differences among them and clustered together. The results suggest that the higher azide concentration of 0.5% is more suitable for persimmon seeds azide treatment to form genotypes, significantly different from the control, at the molecular level.