Differential behaviour of polygenic characters to mutagenic treatments and selection in macrosperma lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.)

Healthy seeds of a macrosperma lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) cv., Prevoz Selection, were treated with three doses each of gamma rays, ethylene imine (EI) and Nnitroso-N-ethyl urea (NEU). All three mutagenized populations (pooled over three doses of each mutagen) showed increased variability over control for all the eight polygenic characters studied in the M₂ and M₃. The economically most important characters like pods and seed yield/plant were not only highly mutable but also showed increased variability in positive direction which was exploited through effective selection. Despite similar pattern of variability in M₂ and M₃ for all the traits, they were not identical in the extent of change. The results demonstrate that some characters, like pods and seed yield/plant, have a tendency to stabilize sooner than others. Therefore, selection for such characters can be confined to M₂ only as not much increase in variability and genetic advance (GA) in M3 over M₂ is observed.