Chemical mutagenic studies in M₁ generatio of chickpea (Cicer arietinum l.)

Chickpea botanically described as Cicer arientinum L. belongs to family fabaceae. It is grown worldwide for its high protein content. The induced mutation breeding helps to improve agronomic characters of plants. With the help of induced mutations several morphological and biochemical traits in crop plants have been improved. The effect of mutagenic concentration used to induce mutations, can be assessed in M₁ generation by studying various morphological parameters like seed germination percentage, seedling height, leaf morphological changes, chlorophyll chimeras, pollen sterility and plant survival percentage at maturity. Present investigation was carried out to assess the mutagenic effect of different concentrations of EMS on various biological parameters of chickpea in M₁ generation. For this purpose, the seeds of chcikpea cv. Vijaya were mutagenized with various concentrations (0.05, 0.10 and 0.15%) of chemical mutagen called Ethyl methanesul fonate (EMS). The treated seeds were sown in the field in order to obtain M₁ generation. The entire M₁ generation was screened thoroughly to record the observations for various biological parameters like percent seed germination, seedling height, morphological changes in the leaves, chlorophyll chimeras, pollen sterility and plant survival at maturity. All mutagenic concentrations showed inhibitory as well as stimulatory effects for all these biological parameters. Various leaf morphological changes and chlorophyll chimeras were recorded with varied frequency. All concentrations of EMS induced growth and developmental parameters in chickpea, variety Vijaya, which may lead to production of novel mutants in M₂ generation.