Induced Mutagenesis for Study of Genetic Variability in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Genetic improvement of any crop depends upon variability present in that crop. By hybridization and conventional breeding method variability of wheat crop is being exhausted hence mutation breeding, alternative and potential source to create variability may be utilized for further improvement. An experiment was conducted to evaluate wheat variety RAJ-4037 in 9 different doses of gamma ray (5KR, 10KR, 15KR, 20KR, 25KR, 30KR, 35KR and 40KR) including control during M 1 and M2 generation in Rabi 2010-2011. The data were recorded on 14 characters to study the analysis of variance, family mean, progeny mean, co-efficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance. It was observed that higher doses of gamma rays reduces the germination %, root length, shoot length and seedling height in M1 generation. Higher magnitude of GCV and PCV was recorded for number of tillers per plant and CTD while plant height and test weight show high heritability. Moderate to low genetic advance was observed for CTD and plant height in M2 generation. The mutant line such as F1 P12, F4 P13, F5 P12 and F5 P13 were identified as the best progeny for grain yield per plant and test weight among all the progeny of different families.