Comparative mutagenic efficiency, effectiveness and induced polygenic variability in mothbean (Vigna acontifolia L.)

Induced biological damage, polygenic variability and comparative mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency of EMS, MMS, SA and HA were studied in four varieties of moth bean, namely, RMO-40, RMO-257, Jwala and CZM-1. Gradual reduction in germination, pollen fertility and survival percentage was observed with increased doses of mutagens. The frequency of chlorophyll mutants was less and were of two types i.e., albino and xantha in which albino type was less frequent. The spectrum of morphological mutations was defined in ten different classes (revertant, bushy, bifurcated stem, bolted, sterile, miniature, branched, increased peduncle length, spreading habit, and increased primary branches). The most effective treatment appeared to be 0.05% MMS, whereas least were 50mM hydroxylamine.The effectiveness of various mutagen treatments was generally higher on RMO-40 and lower on CZM-1.The effectiveness of treatments was decreased in the order of MMS > SA> EMS > HA. The highest mutagenic efficiency was observed with 1.0 mM Sodium azide in the Mothbean variety RMO-40. On the basis of estimates of pooled over genotypes and doses with in a mutagen, SA was the most efficient mutagen followed by MMS, EMS and HA. In M3 generation, 15 progenies showed significantly superior seed yield per plant with higher magnitude of yield contributing traits then the best check, RMO-225. Branches per plant and pods per plant exhibited high genetic variability in M3 generation.