The research was carried out with the ionizing radiation source Cobalt 60 (Co-60) at a dosage of 200, 300, 400, 500 Gy on three safflower varieties. According to the results of the research, in M1 plants; in parallel with the increase in gamma dosages, a certain decrease occurred in plant height, number of branches per plant, number of trays per plant, diameter of the tray, number of seeds per tray, seed yield per plant, and seed vitality. In field observations taken from M2 plants, significant diversity was observed. In M2 plants, significant reductions in emergence rate were observed in all three cultivars depending on the increase in dosages. In all three safflower cultivars, plant height, tray diameter, number of seeds per tray and thousand seed weight values increased compared to control plants in parallel with the increase in dosages. Significant mutations were observed in the 200-400 Gy dosage range in all three cultivars. In M1 plants, when the seed yield per plant and the rate of viability were examined, a certain level of decrease was observed in parallel with the increase in gamma dosages. In M2 plants, in parallel with the dosage increase in all cultivars, the tray diameter values increased compared to the control. Again, in all cultivars, while the diameter of the tray decreased in M1, it increased in M2 in general and increases were observed at low gamma dosages. In M2, dosages of 300-400 Gy also increased in the criteria examined compared to the control and had a stimulating effect. The investigated properties generally decreased in M1 depending on the dosage increase, while there were fluctuations in M2. As a result, the variation created by the radiation and the real effect of the mutation applications emerged after M2. In this study, while the averages of Dinçer and Remzibey cultivars in terms of viability in M1 were almost the same, Shifa cultivar gave more successful results in terms of viability. When the values obtained in the study were examined, it was concluded that genetic variations and changes occurred at dosages of 300-400 Gy at most.
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