Abstract
Three dosages each of thermal neutrons (TN) and ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) were applied to 10 pearlmillet inbreds evaluated in replicated plots in the field. Both mutagens delayed seedling emergence and days to maturity, and reduced seedling height, plant height, leaves per culm, and selfed and sibbed seed set. EMS reduced percent emergence and plants per plot to reach maturity. This extra space allowed EMS‐treated survivors to produce more culms and yield more. Two‐thirds of the 56 sectorial mutants came from TN‐treated seed. Significant inbred ✕ treatment interactions were obtained for 5 of 13 characters studied. Frequencies of chlorophyll‐deficient seedlings from selfed seed of all plants indicated that the 90‐minute TN treatment and 0.4% EMS soak for 4 hours increased the average mutation frequency most (some 5 fold). Mutation frequency in inbreds varied greatly. The most effective EMS treatment induced over 8 times as many mutants in 1 inbred as in another. The 90‐minute TN treatment produced 4 times as many plants (28%) with chromosome interchanges as the heaviest EMS treatment.
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