Problem:
Upon EMS mutagenesis in a crop species, mutants with a favourable phenotype were selected. It was estimated that, on average, a total of 1200 mutations had been introduced per individual plant.
Required:
Question 1: How many rounds of recurrent backcrossing are needed to reduce the number of undesired mutations to less than 10? Show your working.
Question 2: Assuming a genome length of 2.4 Gbp and assuming that mutations were randomly distributed throughout the genome, what is the average distance between mutations before backcrossing?
Question 3: Before each backcross, how could you confirm that the desired mutation is present?
Could anyone help me please?