Generation of gamma irradiated mutagenized population in Solanum lycopersicum CV. Arka Vikas

Natural and induced mutants are the primary resource for understanding the functions of the genes. The study of lethal dose (LD) and development of 300Gy, 400Gy, and 500Gy gamma irradiation population in Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. ArkaVikas was carriedout in the present investigation. The highest germination percentage was recorded in control (98.53%). The germination percentage reduction, seedling height decline, and decreased pollen fertility in M₁ generation was noted with the increasing gamma radiation dose. The 300Gy irradiation caused 41.73% seed germination reduction and was considered an appropriate irradiation dose to develop a mutagenized population. A total of 3000 seeds have been irradiated with 300Gy of gamma rays and 1, 748 (58.26%) M₁ mutagenized plants have survived and out of these 1, 185 viable fertile plants were noted. In M₁ generation two chlorophyll mutants have been identified. Six plants from each M₂ line were screened based on morphological alterations and six putative mutants (0.51%) were identified. The identified mutant lines displayed a varied range of morphological variations that include altered chlorophyll content, elongated fruits, and orange color fruit.