Studies on qualitative and quantitative characters of mutagenised chili populations induced through MMS and EMS

Abstract

Capsicum annum L. is the one of the economically important spice crop and has been in use from the ancient time for both food and medicinal purposes. The present investigation has been carried out to study the responses of C. annum, to the chemical mutagens MMS and EMS (0.1%, 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75% and 1.0%). The qualitative and quantitative traits were observed from the seedling stage to maturity of chili plant, which includes plant height, leaf size and leaf shape, branch per plant, fruit size, number of pods per plants, weight of 1000 seeds in gram, yield per plant and root length. Statistical analysis of the traits showed the induction of significant variations at different concentrations of the mutagen treatments. Quantitative traits including plant height and yield per plant showed useful variations for further selection and advancement in the subsequent generations. The observed morphological variations provided valuable genetic resources which will be helpful in improving the agronomic characters through chili breeding program.