EFFECT OF MUTAGENESIS ON GROWTH AND YIELD RELATED TRAITS IN BLACKGRAM (Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper)

Abstract

The investigation was conducted to understand the immediate effect of mutagenesis on growth
and yield traits in blackgram in order to select most effective mutagen and its dose/concentration
which induce desired improvement without disturbing the better attributes. The seeds of two varieties
of blackgram viz., LBG 752 and TBG 104 were treated with gamma rays (200 Gy, 300 Gy, 400 Gy,
500Gy and 600 Gy), EMS (Ethyl Methane Sulphonate) (0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%, 0.5% and 0.6%) and MH
(Maleic Hydrazide) (0.01%, 0.02% and 0.03%). The observations were recorded on seed germination,
shoot length and root length under in-vitro condition and seedling emergence, seedling survival,
seedling height, pollen fertility, plant height, number of primary branches per plant, number of clusters
per plant, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, pod length, seed fertility, 100-seed
weight and seed yield per plant under field condition. Higher doses of all the mutagens caused
considerable reduction in all the traits studied. MH treatment resulted in drastic reduction in seedling
characters viz., seedling emergence, seedling survival and seedling height followed by EMS and
gamma rays treatment. Based upon the sensitivity of mutagen, gamma rays were highly effective for
modifying majority of the traits in the crop with less biological damage followed by EMS and MH
treatments. Both the parental varieties differed themselves for mutagen treatments. The reduction in
the traits with increasing dose of mutagens was more prominent in LBG 752 than TBG 104 indicated
that LBG 752 was more sensitive to mutagen treatment. These findings would greatly help for cost
effective selection of mutagen and variety for successful generation of variation in mutation breeding
programmes aimed at blackgram crop improvement.