Induced mutations in chickpea (Cicer arietinum l.) v. evaluation of micromutations

A wide range of induced polygenic variability in the form of micromutations was generated in M2 and M3 generations of chickpea. Treated M2 population showed a much greater range of variability for all the characters than the controls. The enormous range of variability observed fully demonstrated the effectiveness of the mutagenic treatments in generating variability for different quantitative characters. High magnitude of increased ranges of variability towards positive side showed that some extremely useful variability has been induced following mutagenic treatments. Differential varietal response for quantitative characters indicated that even though the kabuli varieties are relatively more sensitive in respect of induced genetic damage, it is the desi varieties which gave a higher frequency of micromutations for the various quantitative characters. The study indicated that not all the mutagens are equally effective in generating variability the mutagens are equally effective in generating variability for quantitaive characters and showed a differential response to the different varieties. In general, chemical mutagens have been found to be relatively more efficient than physical in generating variability in M2 and M3 generation. The increased coefficienct of variability (CV) in M2 populations for all the characters suggested that a part of the varibility recorded was genotypic. In M3 generation the CV was considerably lower than in M2 for most of the characters suggesting that selection technique employed in M2 has been highly effective and played a key role in shifting useful variability in the positive direction to M3 generation. The usefulness of induced variability was also evident from the higher estimates of heritability and genetic advance in M2 and M3 population. The study also revealed that characters such as grain yield, number of pods and grains per plant, grain weight and biological yield showed a higher response to mutagenic treatments, indicating that remarkable opportunities exist for marked improvement of these polygenic characters in chickpea.