Perbaikan karakter agronomi dan adaptasi terhadap cekaman kekeringan pada kedelai [Glycine max (l.) Merr.] melalui iradiasi sinar gamma dosis rendah | Agronomic improvement characters and adaptation to drought stress on soybean [Glycine max (l) merr] through low doses of gamma rays irradiation

The increase in genetic variability of soybean plants improve the probability to select for desired characters, for example, adaptation to drought stress. Mutation breeding is a breeding methods that can be applied to improve genetic variability of soybean in a relatively short time. Similarly, mutation induction can also increase genetic variability of soybean by using low doses of gamma rays irradiation. The objectives of the research were : (1) to obtain information on the changes in morphological and agronomic characters due to the treatment of low doses of gamma rays irradiation on plant population; (2) to obtain information on genetic variability among irradiation doses in plant population; (3) to obtain mutant putative genotype with good morphological and agronomic characters on optimum as well as stress condition; (4) to obtain information on the character of physiological adaptation to drought and plants; and (5) to obtain to a mutant putative line which can tolerate drought and high yielding. The study result showed that in Lethal Dose 50 (LD50) value there were 457,13 Gy. Gamma ray irradiation produced four populations that showed different growth and development from the non-irradiated control (Argomulyo). Genetic variability of each trait was different in each population at M2 generation. The selection based on number of productive pods and weight of seed per plant resulted in a mean improvement of selected genotype compared to the mean of base populations in M3 generation, respectively. Putative mutant lines on M4 that was from M3 selection had a mean improvement of plant height, number of productive nodes and number of productive pods better than that of Argomulyo variety. There were different responses of drought tolerant varieties (Ceneng and Tanggamus) and drought sensitive varieties (Anjasmoro and Argomulyo) to soil water content. The escape mechanism was found as earlier maturity in Argomulyo variety. Avoidance mechanism due to the increase in root volume was found in Anjasmoro, Ceneng and Tanggamus varieties at 40 % field capacity. Tolerance mechanism was marked by the reduction of evapotranspiration in Tanggamus variety at 40 % field capacity. The research results showed that the performance of agronomic characters on drought condition were lower than that of in optimum condition in M5 population. The selection result on M5 generation indicated that the selected mutant strains had good agronomic characters and high yielding. They had good adaptability to drought and were high yielding in optimum conditions and drought conditions.