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Improvement of quality and yield of wheat by mutation
breeding A. Hassan KHAN Nuclear Institute for Agriculture & Biology, Lyallpur, Pakistan Seeds of a standard variety Mexi-Pak-65 were irradiated with 400 rad neutron (fast), and were space planted. Single-spike progenies were grown in the MI generation for the selection of desirable mutant plants. Through this procedure, seven dwarf and early maturing mutants were selected and their breeding behaviour was confirmed in MI generation. One gram seed of each of these mutants was taken for the estimation of protein by KJELDHAL method. The protein content of seven wheat mutants ranges from 13.68 to 17.23 per cent while in Mexi-Pak it is only 12.49 per cent. Mutant-15 (Rageni) gave the highest percentage of protein (17.23) which is nearly 40 per cent increase over the control (12.49) (Table 1). The amino acid analysis of Ragent and the parent variety Mexi-Pak was conducted on the EEL 193 High Speed Amino Acid Analyser. The increase in case of mutant Rageni was found in all the sixteen amino acid analysed with significant increase in the three essential amino acids: lysine, methionine and threonine (Table 2). Knowing that the amino acid composition does not give an estimate of milling qualities, the increase in total production of amino acids of this magnitude is important. The yield components of wheat mutant Rageni and the parent variety are given in the Table 3. The mutant was further subjected to quality test. It has a hard, amber coloured and bold grain, and its "chapati" making quality is much better than that of Mexi-Pak-65. In order to assess the grain yield potential of mutant Rageni, the mutant was tested against Mexi-Pak-65 and SA-42 (Table 4). The grain yield per acre is the same both in mutant (69.36 mds/acre and control (69.11 mds/acre). The Rageni mutant has high protein content so the per acre protein production is much more in mutant (12.01 mds/acre) than that in control (8.63 mds/acre). Mutant Rageni is early maturing and was harvested 3 weeks earlier than the control Mexi-Pak. It gives the farmers extra 21 days for the preparation of land for rice cultivation. Moreover, mutant can be safely recommended for late sowing; and in our experiment (Table 4) for late sowing, it has given 4 mds/acre (56.82 mds/acre) more yield than the yield of commercially grown late variety SA-42 (51.90 mds/acre). Looking at the performance of wheat mutant Rageni ; it can be safely concluded that it has superior potentialities for grain yield and nutritive value ; and after large scale yield trials on the farmers fields, it can be recommended for general purpose commerical sowing. (Received December 20, 1972) |