Abstract
Three kabuli chickpea genotypes, viz. ILC's 482, 3279 and 6104 were treated with a range of gamma irradiation doses (10 to 110 kR) and EMS doses (0.1 to 0.4%) to obtain useful information about the use of these mutagens in inducing genetic variability and to estimate the doses of gamma irradiation and EMS that were effective to reduce the growth by a given proportion under control (non-treated) conditions. At lower doses of gamma irradiation, stimulating effect on shoot and root length was observed in all the genotypes but adversely affected at higher doses of gamma irradiation and EMS. The sensitivity to gamma irradiation and EMS appeared to be related with the seed size, The large seeded genotype ILC 6104 seemed to be more sensitive than the small seeded ILC 3279 and ILC 482. It appeared that shoot and root length reduction can be used with equal reliability for estimating the appropriate mutagen dose. Three gamma irradiation doses (40,50 and 60 kR) and two EMS doses (0.1 and 0.2%) which caused reduction in the shoot and root length around 20-40% could be chosen for large scale mutagenic treatments.
