GENETIC VARIABILITY STUDIES IN WHEAT HYBRID CUM MUTATED F3M2 POPULATION FOR AGRO-MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the experimental farm of Wheat Research Station Tandojam. The objective of the experiment was to determine the genetic variability in seven F3M2 mutated hybrid populations of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) developed through crossing between eight parents. The F1 hybrids were treated with three radiations doses (100, 150, 200Gy) of gamma rays and their control. The experiment was laidout in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The means of treated populations were compared to their untreated parental lines for selected traits viz. plant height, number of fertile tillers per plant, spike length, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per spike, seed index and grain yield per plant. The mean squares revealed that all the genotypes under the treatments as well as untreated populations differed significantly (P? 0.01) for all the traits under study. The mutated hybrids Soghat-90 × Sarsabz at T2 (150 Gy) recorded the highest value of plant height, while Khirman × RWM-9313 at T2 (150 Gy) recorded the highest values for number of fertile tillers per plant, number of grains per spike and grain yield per plant. On the other hand, parent Marvi-2000 gave the highest values of spike length and seed index, while parent Khirman gave the highest number of spikelets per spike. Results indicated that moderate to high doses of gamma rays (150, 200Gy) could produce desirable mutant. Hence, offering the better scope of selection towards the improvement and can be utilized for the development of new superior varieties of wheat.

Keywords

• hybridization
• mutation breeding
• wheat crop
• yield
• yield components