Comparative Mutation Rate from Xray and UV. As the table indicates, mutations were considerably more frequent from UV than from Xrays, in spite of the fact that the Xray doses used produced considerably more translocations and probably more deficiencies.
Actually the mutation rate from UV is considerably higher than is indicated by these data. Among a sample of pollen grains treated with UV, because of the high absorption in passing through the pollen grain contents, only a small proportion receive a heavy dose at the site of the gametic nucleus, and many receive no effective dose at all. The mutation rate among the effectively-treated pollen grains therefore is much higher. Many of these include two or more independent mutations.
It is probable also that many of the segregating pollen defects (particularly of the subnormal class) are due to mutation expressed in the gametophyte generation rather than to deficiency. Since intercalary deficiencies are so rare and mutations are so common with UV treatment, it seems probable that the high frequency of subnormal pollen segregation following UV treatment is largely or wholly the result of gametophytic mutations, and is another expression of the high frequency of mutation induced by this agent.