Experimental purpose was to evaluate growth characteristic and abscisic acid (ABA) responses against salt/drought stresses. In the shoot biomass, creeping thyme was tolerated in mild NaCl stress, ranging 0 to 100 mM, while it was severely reduced in higher salinity. Under constant drought stress, the shoot biomass of creeping thyme showed a worse value compared to that of 100 mM NaCl treatment. Chlorophyll degradation was more severe in immature leaf than mature leaf under salt and drought stresses. In salt stress, immature leaf produced much amounts of ABA compared to mature leaf and also immature leaf showed faster increase of ABA than that of mature leaf. In drought stress, immature leaf responded to stress within 24 hours by the increase of ABA, while mature leaf responded to at 72 hours. Our results recommended that the optimal salinity level of creeping thyme was 50~100 mM NaCl.

It was previously pointed out that mutation is the ultimate source of variation. Adequate variation is needed for plant breeding if there is a limitation in natural genetic resources. When the ionizing radiation has been known to cause chromosomal and genomic alternations, it is widely used for inducing mutagenesis. The electron beam as an ionizing radiation is the principal physical mutagens that induces mutation and effectively used in plant breeding. Since dose-response relationships of electron beam in plant species are rarely known, we investigated the seed germination rate and early seedling growth of irradiated seeds of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris Huds., cv Penn-A1) with various electron beam irradiating conditions (1, 1.3, 2 MeV at both 0.03 mA and 0.06 mA with dose of 100 Gy (Gray) and 0.03, 1, 1.3, 2 MeV at 0.03 mA with dose of 200 Gy, respectively) using electron accelerator at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. The growth parameters in terms of shoot length, primary root length, and secondary root length showed similar response between 0.06 / 1 (mA / MeV) at 100 Gy and 0.03 / 0.3 (mA / MeV) at 200 Gy. Bentgrass seed germination was mainly affected by the intensity of irradiated dose (Gray). Germination rate was lowered as the irradiated dose increased. On the other hand, early seedling growth was mainly governed not by the dose of radiation but by voltage.

The direct use of mutation is a valuable approach to generate variability in crops. The electron beam, one of the ionizing radiations, has been applied to evaluate its effect on seed germination and early seedling growth of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris Huds., cv Penn-A1). The mature dry seeds were irradiated with various electron beam energies (0.3, 1.0, 1.3, and 2 MeV) and current levels (0.03 and 0.06 mA). Although large variability was existed within each dose, distinct difference of germiability and seedling vigor were not found at 0.3 MeV / 0.03 mA and 0.3 MeV / 0.06 mA beam condition. However, 1.0 MeV / 0.06 mA application most effectively inhibited and retarded seed germination and most severely restricted cotyledon and root growth in early seedling growth. The direct use of electron beam would be a valuable supplementary approach to generate mutants suitable for breeding purposes.