Radiation breeding[edit]
Exposing plants to radiation is sometimes called radiation breeding and is a sub class of mutagenic breeding. Radiation breeding was discovered in the 1920s when Lewis Stadler of the University of Missouri used X-rays on maize and barley. In the case of barley, the resulting plants were white, yellow, pale yellow and some had white stripes.[7] In 1928, Stadler first published his findings on radiation-induced mutagenesis in plants.[8] During the period 1930-2004, radiation-induced mutant varieties were developed primarily using gamma rays (64%) and X-rays (22%).[4]:187
Radiation breeding may take place in atomic gardens;[8] and seeds have been sent into orbit in order to expose them to more cosmic radiation