Studies on the mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency of gamma rays in lentil

Induced mutagenesis has been used very widely in plants to create genetic variability in traits of economic value. Lentil, an important high protein food legume plant botanically described as Lens culinaris L, belongs to family Leguminosaceae. The effect of mutagen like gamma: rays was studied in lentil and data on lethality, pollen sterility, mitotic aberrations, percentage of seed germination, percentage of plant survival, seed fertility, mitotic index and total number of mutants in M₂ generation have been recorded. As a part of this study the effect of gamma rays was evaluated on the frequency of chlorophyll mutants in M₂ generation. From this data and the data on biological damage in M₁ generation of lentil, the mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency of gamma rays were worked out.