Induced mutagenesis of short duration rice variety-Onam

Abstract

This work highlights the potential of Ethyl Methane Sulphonate (EMS) as a powerful chemical mutagen that can be used to induce genetic diversity in the rice variety Onam. A definite inverse association between treatment period and germination percentage was found by treating seeds with 1.6% EMS for varied lengths of time. In comparison to the control group, which had germination rates of 88%, the germination rates dropped dramatically from 72% after 2 hours to 20% at 5 hours. This decrease in germination percentage confirms EMS's function in mutant breeding by highlighting its dose-dependent effect. Thus, EMS-induced mutagenesis can be used as technique for creation of variability in already existing germplasm for producing novel varieties with distinguishing characters.