Abstract:Irradiation-induced mutation is an effective way to create rice germplasm resources and breed new varieties. Seed moisture content and irradiation dose are important factors affecting irradiation tolerance. To smoothly carry out the construction of japonica rice mutant libraries and irradiation mutagenesis breeding in cold regions,this study explored the suitable irradiation doses for japonica rice seeds with different moisture contents. Using 60 Co-γ rays, seeds of four main japonica rice varieties(collected from different accumulated temperature zones in Heilongjiang Province) with different moisture contents were irradiated at six doses(0, 250, 280, 300, 330, 350 Gy). After treatment, the seedling emergence rate was recorded, and two-factor analysis of variance(ANOVA)was conducted for the combinations of "moisture content × variety" and "moisture content × irradiation dose".The analysis results showed that in the "moisture content × variety" model, the factors influencing seedling emergence ranked as follows: main effect of moisture content > main effect of variety > interaction effect between moisture content and variety. In the "moisture content × irradiation dose" model, the influencing factors ranked as: main effect of moisture content > main effect of irradiation dose > interaction effect between moisture content and irradiation dose. These results indicate that moisture content is the key factor affecting the irradiation tolerance of japonica rice seeds. When the irradiation dose was not higher than 350 Gy, the irradiation tolerance of seeds increased with the increase of moisture content but decreased with the increase of irradiation dose. When the seed moisture content was higher than 14%, the irradiation tolerance of seeds was significantly enhanced.When the seed moisture content was between 14% and 16%, the irradiation tolerance of the four varieties followed the order: Longgeng 46 > Longgeng 31 > Suigeng 18 > Songgeng 28. Specifically, the irradiation tolerance of Longgeng 46 seeds was significantly higher than that of Songgeng 28, while there was no significant difference in irradiation tolerance between Longgeng 31 and Suigeng 18. For the four varieties, when the seed moisture content was close to 14%, the median lethal irradiation doses were 250 and 280 Gy(with seedling emergence rate close to 50%). When the seed moisture content ranged from 14% to 16%, the median lethal irradiation dose was350 Gy(with seedling emergence rate around 50%).