Abstract
Induced mutation in plant improvement has been used in several crops to generate new sources of genetic variations. A study was conducted to determine the effect of different doses of gamma irradiation on different morpho-agronomic characteristics. Agronomic traits that were analyzed included: grain yield, number of pods/plant, number of seeds/plant and weight of 100 seeds and numbers of days to 50% flowering. Morphometric characterisation of the descriptive data included plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves/plant, leaflet length, leaflet width and number of ramification/ plant. Groundnut seeds were treated with various doses of gamma rays (100, 200, 400 and 600 Gy). Among the various dose treatments, gamma rays treatment at 100 Gy resulted in a higher increase of grain yield and other morpho-agronomic parameters especially for the JL24 variety. In fact the gamma irradiation at 100 Gy increased significantly grain yield by 14% for JL24, and 4 % for JL12. The number of pods per plant was increased by 2% for JL12 and 37% for JL24. For the number of seeds per plant, there was a significant increase of 8% for JL12, and 62% for JL24 at 100 Gy. A similar trend was observed for the JL24 at 200 Gy dose. Higher doses of gamma rays (400 and 600 Gy) reduced significantly plant growth and grain yield. The usefulness of the mutants identified in a groundnut breeding program is discussed.
Highlights
Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oil seed crop and grain legume worldwide
Grain yield varied from 734 Kg/ha to 2337 Kg/ha in M1 and from 821 Kg/ha to 2358 Kg/ha in M2 (Tables 2 and 4)
In M1, gamma irradiation at any dose decreased significantly grain yield compared to control for the three varieties that were evaluated (Table 2)
Summary
Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oil seed crop and grain legume worldwide. It is self pollinating and possesses limited variability. The successful utilization of gamma rays to generate genetic variability in plant breeding has been reported in soybean [2,3,4] and other crops [510]. It has been demonstrated in many studies that genetic variability for several desired characters can be induced successfully through mutations and its practical value in plant improvement programmes has been well established [11]. Groundnut breeding in Central Africa has been limited and the majorities of varieties that are available in national gene pools are from international programs and they are not always adapted to local growing conditions
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