Technical considerations for use of sodium azide in plant biotechnology-assisted genetic improvement
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Date
2025
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Abstract
odium azide has been used in plant biotechnology as a mutagen to induce genetic variation in plants for the purpose of improving traits such as yield, disease resistance, and stress tolerance, for more than four decades. It acts by causing random mutations and researchers can expose plant seeds and a variety of zygotic and vegetative explants to sodium azide for this purpose. Sodium azide can also be used in combination with other biotechnological tools, such as genetic engineering, to further enhance the genetic improvement of plants; for example, to induce mutations in plants that have been genetically modified to overexpress certain genes. Its sustained use over what has been plant biotechnology’s most intense period of innovation speaks to the value of sodium azide as a tool for creating genetic diversity and facilitating the development of new plant varieties with improved traits. Its widespread application in plant biotechnology has led to a lot of variation across facilities/laboratories and species in terms of the methods of exposure, tissues targeted, concentrations used, mutagenic efficiency and biological consequences. The use of mutagens like sodium azide also raises ethical concerns around the unintended consequences and potential risks of mutagens to the environment and human health. This motivated the current review on the technical considerations for the use of sodium azide in plant biotechnology-assisted genetic improvement. Despite the challenges associated with the use of sodium azide (mainly related to a decline in growth) when the method of application is optimized (in terms of plant material, concentration and exposure method) the technique can be a valuable, low cost, option for developing new plant varieties with improved characteristics that can benefit agriculture and food security. © Plant Science and Biodiversity Centre, Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS), Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS), Institute of Molecular Biology, Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS)
Description
Keywords
Chemical mutagen, Mutagenesis, NaN₃, Plant breeding, Temporary immersion bioreactors
Citation
Lozada, A., Gómez, D., Hernández, L., Martínez, J., Acosta, Y., Companioni, B., Zevallos–Bravo, B.E., Tapia y Figueroa, M.D.L., Sershen and Lorenzo, J.C., 2025. Technical considerations for use of sodium azide in plant biotechnology-assisted genetic improvement. Biologia, 80(8), pp.1939-1946.