Potential of fractionated doses of gamma rays to stimulate growth and yield of amaranthus caudatusin M1 (First filial generation) and M2 (Second filial generation) generation

Abstract

The increasing demand of convenience, wholesome and health promoting foods has resulted in search of new technologies to improve the yield of agriculture crops. The present study investigate the influence of fractionated gamma irradiation doses on germination, growth and yield of Amaranthus caudatus; a potential plant in food and medicinal industry. The air dried seeds of A. caudatus were exposed to different set of gamma irradiation doses (10KRF, 20KRF, 40KRF and 80KRF) using 60 Co source. For fractionated treatment, it was done by fractionating the doses in two equal parts by allowing an interval of 24 hours between two equal doses. Treated and untreated seeds were sown in a uniform soil medium. The whole experiment was arranged in a complete randomized block design, and the observations were taken upto M2 generation. The gamma irradiations significantly (p≤0.05) alter the germination energy index in M1 and M2 generations. In contrast, the germination percentage didn’t show any significant difference. The highest percentage of survival was recorded under 20KRF treatment in both M1 and M2 generations. The maximum yield per plant in M1 and M2 generations was recorded by 20KRF gamma irradiation treatment. The different growth parameters were significantly (p≤0.05) enhanced in both M1 and M2 generations, by the gamma irradiation treatments in a dose dependent manner. Also, it was observed that the growth and yield in M2 generation across all doses was better than M1 generation. The present study demonstrated that the fractionated gamma irradiation treatments can be used as a novel approach to enhance the growth and yield of A. caudatus.