GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF FOXTAIL MILLET FROM KOLLI HILLS LANDRACES THROUGH CHEMICAL MUTATION

Human beings and their culture evolved along with their development in agricultural practices. In which variety food crops were identified, breed and improved through natural selection and their performance contributing to their huge agro biodiversity. Foxtail millet, S. italica is one which was attempted in the present study to improve through chemical mutation. In the present study S. italica seeds were collected from Kolli Hills, Tamilnadu, India and exposed to different concentration of chemical mutagen Ethyl Methanesulfonate (EMS) and found that percentage germination, root length, shoot length, seedling length Height, and vigour index of S. italica reduced with increasing concentration of EMS. However, days of flowering of S. italica , decreased and increased, productive tillers, panicle length, average 100 grain weight, proline content, Melanodialdehyde (MDA), H 2 O 2 , ascorbic acid, DPPH activity, protein, fibre, energy, riboflavin and folic acid of S. italica increased and decreased with increasing concentration of EMS.Productive tillers, panicle length, Melanodialdehyde (MDA), H 2 O 2 , ascorbic acid, DPPH activity, protein, fibre, energy and folic acid of S. italica were high at 0.45% EMS. The average 100 grain weight and riboflavin of S. italica was higher at 0.30% EMS. MDA of S. italica was high at 0.60% of EMS and proline content of S. italica increased all along the increasing concentration of EMS.