Vol. 11, Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Aascharya Pandey, VM Prasad, Sudhir Kumar Mishra and Deepak Lall

Abstract:
Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is native to the tropical regions of America, but it has been introduced in different countries of the world where is nowadays naturalized. Its popularity is rising in growers as a highly economical fruit crop due to its early and regular bearing nature, extended harvesting span and possibility of meadow orcharding. It is quite possibly of the most significant tropical and subtropical fruit tree, since its rich in essential vitamins and mineral salts. Because of its seed propagation, there are heterozygotic population in which there is a right hereditary changeability for the choice of helpful commercial types. Breeding in guava may incorporate advancement of delicate seeds or seedlessness, better resistance to biotic and abiotic stress including climate as well tolerance against severe resiliency against wither infections due to pest and insect, dry spell resistance and tolerance against drought climatic conditions. Mutation breeding has been an exceptionally helpful in prompting variety and improvement of novel characteristics in various fruit crops including guava. Mutation breeding involves utilization of physical and chemical mutagens including colchicine which leads to polyploidization. Seeds of selected elite strains in 'Pyriform' and 'Round' shaped guava cultivars were gamma irradiated and sown in soil media under greenhouse conditions to develop mutant population for further selection and characterization.