Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding (The)
Year : 1981, Volume : 41, Issue : 3
First page : ( 334) Last page : ( 339)
Print ISSN : 0019-5200. Online ISSN : 0975-6906.

Induced Systematic Mutations and Their Significance in Evolution of Sorghum

Reddy C. S.*, Smith J. D.

Genetics Section Department of Plant Sciences, Texas A & M University College Station, Texas-77 843, U.S.A.

*Present address: Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, A.P.A.U. Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, India.

Abstract

Systematic mutants (grain type, glume type and awned) were induced in a sorghum variety, Texas-414 by subjecting it to treatments with gamma rays, hydrazine (HZ), ethyl methanesulphonate (EMS), methyl methanesulphonate (MMS) singly and in combinations along with cysteine (GS) as pre-and post-treatment modifier. Caudatum spikelet type mutants occurred at higher frequency followed by guinea, kafir, bicolor and wild type, while Texas-414 possesses durra type spikelets. Also a number of intermediate races were obtained. The occurrence of these mutants resembling races of Sorghum bicolor spp. bicolor other than that used in the present study suggest that racial differentiation in cultivated sorghums proceeded through a series of independent mutations affecting grain and spikelet characteristics brought together under the influence of disruptive selection.

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