Mutation Breeding: A Way Forward for Genetic Improvement in Mungbean

Abstract

Mungbean is a major food leguminous crop mainly cultivated in Asia. It is famous for its high protein, carbohydrate, and nutritional content. With the help of microorganisms located in their root nodules, the crop also maintain soil fertility through biological nitrogen fixation. This not only allows them to meet their own nitrogen needs, but it also improves the production of succeeding crops. One of the prerequisites for crop improvement is the availability of genetic variability. The capability to select improved genotypes in mungbean is limited by a lack of necessary diversity. Chemical and physical mutagens are frequently employed in Plant Mutation Breeding to boost crop productivity and resistance to diseases, insects, drought, and salt by creating genetic variability in crop plants. Mungbean is an early maturing crop often cultivated on low-fertility land with minimal inputs. In the case of these crops, the selection pressure has been focused on stress adaptation rather than yield. As a result, improving the genetics of such crops to increase yield necessitates genetic reconstitution to generate diverse plant types. Induced mutations can contribute to the regeneration and restoration of diversity that has been lost during the evolutionary process because of various pressures or adaptations. Thus, induced mutation or mutation breeding has a lot of potential for improving traditional agricultural crops like mungbean. In this paper, we look at many forms of mutations identified in mungbean crops by various scientists.