Differential behaviour of polygenic characters to mutagenic treatments and selection in macrosperma lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.)

Abstract

Healthy seeds of a macrosperma lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) cv., Prevoz Selection, were treated with three doses each of gamma rays, ethylene imine (EI) and Nnitroso- N-ethyl urea (NEU). All three mutagenized populations (pooled over three doses of each mutagen) showed increased variability over control for all the eight polygenic characters studied in the M2 and M3. The economically most important characters like pods and seed yield/plant were not only highly mutable but also showed increased variability in positive direction which was exploited through effective selection. Despite similar pattern of variability in M2 and M3 for all the traits, they were not identical in the extent of change. The results demonstrate that some characters, like pods and seed yield/plant, have a tendency to stabilize sooner than others. Therefore, selection for such characters can be confined to M2 only as not much increase in variability and genetic advance (GA) in M3 over M2 is observed.