Vol. 11, Issue 2 (2022)

Author(s):
Palshetkar MG, Sawardekar SV, Dalvi VV, Narangalkar AL and JS Dhekale

Abstract:
Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp], belongs to family Fabaceae, is the most important food legume crop. Pigeonpea is an economic source of not only protein but of carbohydrate, minerals and B-complex vitamins particularly in vegetarian diet (Salunkhe et al., 1985). Mutation breeding technique is the best method to enhance the genetic variability of crop with in short time. In the present investigation the seeds of Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp) were treated with different doses of gamma radiation (100 Gy, 200 Gy, 300 Gy, and 400 Gy) and concentration of Ethyl Methane Sulphonate (0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 per cent) and their combinations with 100 Gy, 200 Gy, 300 Gy and 400 Gy were immersed in freshly prepared 0.2 per cent aqueous solution of Ethyl methane sulfonate for studying seed germination, shoot length, root length, germination index, mean daily germination and vigour index under laboratory condition and germination percentage, survival percentage and mortality percentage under field condition. Decreasing trend was observed in all mutagenic treatments as per the increased dose of mutagen under laboratory as well as under field condition. Considering laboratory and field observation on per cent germination and other related parameters among the various mutagenic treatments, LD₅₀ dose was optimized. For gamma rays mutagenic treatment 300Gy, for EMS mutagenic treatment 0.20% EMS and for combination treatment 300Gy+ 0.20% EMS doses were optimized as a LD₅₀ doses which were close to LD₅₀ for pigeonpea.