Assessment of radiosensitivity and enhancing key steviol glycosides in Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni through gamma radiation

Purpose Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is a perennial herb, widely used as a natural sweetener around the globe. The key compounds responsible for its sweetness includes stevioside and rebaudioside-A. In order to improve these steviol glycosides, the present study was initiated to study the effect of induced mutagenesis on growth parameters, steviol glycosides and nuclear DNA content in Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni using ten doses of gamma-rays (5-100 kR).Materials and methods Healthy seeds of ‘Madhuguna’ variety of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni developed and maintained at stevia breeding farm, Agrotechnology division, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur (HP), India were irradiated with ten doses of gamma rays (600 seeds each/dose) ranging from 5 kR to 100 kR (i.e., 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 and 100 kR) using Co60 gamma irradiation chamber at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, (Haryana), India.Results Significant variations were recorded for all the seedling traits studied while major impact was noticed on the seedling after reaching the cotyledonary stage and doses above 40 kR showed absolute mortality of the seedlings. Based on probit analysis, the optimum LD50 dose lies in the range of 20-23 kR. Glycosidic profiling of 296 mutants using high-performance liquid chromatography showed decreased total steviol glycoside content with increased radiation dose. Doses 5 kR and 10 kR, were found to be effective in increasing the overall glycosidic content. A total of 72 promising mutants were also screened for increased rebaudioside-A stevioside ratio. Comparison of nuclear DNA content using flow cytometry revealed a similar decrease in the total nuclear DNA content with increase in dosage of gamma rays. The average genome size at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 kR treatments were 2.72, 2.69, 2.68, 2.70 and 2.66 pg as compared to 2.72 pg in control.Conclusions Mild dose of gamma rays (5 and 10 kR) in stevia were found to be effective in improving the mean steviol glycoside content and may be used in future stevia mutation programmes.