Studies on trypsin inhibitor, polyphenol and lectin content in induced mutants of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik)

Seed of two lentil cultivars L-4611 and L-4639 were treated with EMS (0.05%, 0.10% and 0.15%) and SA (0.01%, 0.02% and 0.03%) M₂ micromutants (195 in number) from both the cultivars were analyzed for trypsin inhibitor (TI), polyphenol and lectin content. Among 195 micromutants 37 micromutants showing three trypsin inhibitor bands as compared with five in control in both the cultivars were quantitatively estimated. Reduction (30–50%) and increase (10–30%) in the TI contents of the mutants in both the cultivars were observed. These 37 mutants with variable trypsin inhibitor content were screened for polyphenol and lectin content, which showed 28–35% reduction and marginal increase (16–33%) in polyphenol content and 31–39% reduction and 10–24% increase in lectin content. From the above results it is concluded that the various mutagenic treatments 0.10% and 0.15% of EMS and 0.01% and 0.02% of SA induced genetic variability with significant alterations in growth and metabolism of the plant body. The results obtained decisively demonstrated the usefulness and the effective potential of the induced mutational approaches in genetic improvement of lentil for recovering mutant plant types having low trypsin inhibitor/polyphenol/lectin content.