Mutagenic interactions between maleic hydrazide and X rays in the stamen hairs of Tradescantia clone BNL 4430

Mutagenic interactions between maleic hydrazide (MH; a promutagen known to be activated into a mutagen in plant cells) and X rays were studied in the stamen hairs of Tradescantia clone BNL 4430, a blue/pink heterozygote. The young inflorescence-bearing shoots with roots cultivated in the nutrient solution circulating growth chamber were used as tester plants. After determining doseresponse curves for X rays and for MH, nine combined treatments with MH (0.5 and 1 mM) and X rays (292 to 1,240 mGy) were conducted, exposing to X rays either 20 or 44 h before, at the midpoint of, or 2 or 44 h after the MH treatments for 4 h. Clear synergistic effects in inducing somatic pink mutations were detected when X rays were given before the MH treatments. On the contrary, however, antagonistic effects were often observed when X-ray treatments were carried out during or after the MH treatments. The synergistic effects detected were thought to be the results of interactions between DNA strand breaks (and the resultant chromosomal breaks) induced by X rays and those by MH, whereas the antagonistic effects observed were presumed to have resulted from X-ray-caused inhibition of the activation of MH in the stamen-hair cells.