Genetic improvement through chemical and physical mutagenesis for enhanced leaf production in moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.)

Creation of variation and selection of novel moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) cultivars with the desirable qualities demanded by farmers, industrialists and consumers have long been the breeding objective at HC & RI, Periyakulam, TNAU. Breeding for new leafy type moringa cultivar through induced mutagenesis approach was taken as an objective for this experiment. Several desirable Ethyl methane sulfonate induced mutant lines that were identified from moringa cultivar PKM-1. These mutant lines were recorded more than four times (0.200 g.) of leaf dry weight production than PKM-1. It was also found that the percentage of germination was almost affected during physical mutagenesis (Gamma irradiation). This reveals that the percentage of germination is reduced with an increased mutagen dose. The prospects of exploring the identified mutant lines and applications of tools of modern genomics assisted breeding in genetic improvement of moringa with enhanced nutritionally, medicinally and industrially essential traits.