In mutated plants that lacked both types of PI4Kβ, some cells went haywire during cell division, growing larger and accumulating several nuclei because daughter cells didn’t successfully separate. F.

A simple genetic test will enable growers to cull mutated plants at the beginning of the process, while they are still in culture dishes.

The production, handling and assaying (analysing) of mutant populations with often many thousands of individual plants is a large undertaking. It is often considered the real “art” of mutation ...