CHEMICAL INDUCTION OF MALE STERILITY IN CHICKPEA

Abstract

Chemical induction of male sterility has been considered desirable because it has the potential to provide for the development of hybrids directly out of elite germplasm without the time and effort required to transfer male sterility and fertility restorer gene [1]. It is also helpful in effecting crosses where flower size is small and emasculation is difficult. Small flower size and flower droping in chickpea makes crossing a difficult proposition. Therefore, to facilitate emasculation a gametocide Fluoro oxanil was tried to induce male sterility in chickpea. Chemical hybridizing agents (CHA) that selectively inhibit pollen development or reduce its fertility have been reported for quite some time in rice and wheat [2] but there is no report of gametocidal use in chickpea. Fluoro oxanil was sprayed one week before flowering on two lines of chickpea namely Pusa-267 (kabuli) and a bushy mutant IC-9100403 (desi). Two treatments of 800 ppm and 1000 ppm Fluoro-oxanil were tried. Distilled water sprayed plants were used as controls. Pollen sterility was studied using aceto-carmine staining method. Pollen sterility among treated plants was observed to vary between 70- 80%. Pod setting/seed formation by self-pollination was found to be affected in both the kabuli and desi .type in the treated plants. The observation are based on ten randomly selected treated plants. The data for each plant was collected on ten randomly selected branches and is presented in Table 1.