Mutagenic Effect of Ethyl Methane Sulphonate and Sodium Azide on Pod Characters in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

In the present investigation the different quantitative characters in M2 and M3 generations were studied to estimate the variability induced by mutagenic treatments. A through statistical analysis of the data on individual quantitative character was done to analyses the effect of mutations in shifting the mean and variance in either direction. The effect of chemical mutagens on pod characters, the productivity in terms pods per plant as compared with control/ normal plants was found to be better in some of the viable mutants like tall, early maturing (in BDN 9-3) high yielding and late maturity. Elongated pod mutant was recorded only in BDN 9-3, in this mutant, the pods were found to be slightly elongated in shape as compared to control. The seeds of this mutant were larger, elongated and more weighted than the control.