Mutagenic effects of ethyl methane sulphonate and sodium azide in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Abstract

Commercially potato is propagated through tubers. Propagation through seeds is hindered by high degree of hetero-zygosity, self-incompatibility and male sterility leading to failures in fruit and seed set. Such problems pose difficulty in incorporation of useful characters in a new genotype. The present investigation was undertaken to study effect of two cheryJical mutagens [ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) and sodium azide (SA)] on two potato genotypes viz. MF-II and TPS-67. Mini-tubers (5 to 10 gm weight) were treated with three concentrations of EMS (0.03, 0.05 and 0.07 %) and SA (0.02, 0.04 and 0.06 %) for 4 hours at room temperature (25±2°C). Immediately after treatment these tubers were washed thoroughly under running tap water and soaked in distilled water for one hour.' The tubers soaked in distilled water for 4 hours served as controls. For each treatment, a batch of 450 tubers was used. 150 tubers from each treatment were kept in petriplates on moist cotton for recording germination percentage. The remaining lot of 300 tubers from each treatment was sown in nethouse in plastic pots (23 em size) filled with coco-peat and laid in Completely Randomized Design with three replications. The data were analyzed statistically [1].