Mutation Induced in Gladiolas through Physical and Chemical Mutagens

Resumen o Introducción

This investigation on mutation induced in gladiolus (Gladiolus hybridus) cv. American Beauty through physical and chemical mutagens was carried out at Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari (Gujarat). Corms were treated with different doses of gamma rays (5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 kR), EMS (0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5%) and DES (0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5%). Different vegetative, floral and yield characters were taken under study.

The gladiolus is known worldwide for its attractive spikes and has gained much importance as 'Queen of bulbous flowers' with ever increasing demand in the flower market. Among the commercial flowers, the gladiolus is one of the most important flowers in India because of its majestic spikes containing attractive, elegant and delicate florets of various shades, sequential opening of flowers for a longer duration and good keeping quality of cut flowers.

Gladiolas need attention towards genetic improvement as the demand of flowers is increasing continuously. Since garden varieties of today come from diverse genetic parentage that are heteroploids ranging from 2n=30 to 180 and hypo aneauploids so the reproduction by seeds in this case has no meaning to maintain the varietal identity, but for evolution of new forms. Due to its heterozygosity in genetic constitutions, this makes it promising test material for induction of mutagens where only one or a few characters are to be improved upon without changing the entire genotype which offers promising possibilities. The gladiolus is vegetatively grown to perfection and so mutation breeding offers great potentialities as the mutated part can be conveniently perpetuated by vegetative means resulting in the development of new forms. Hence, the present investigation was conducted and the emphasis was laid on finding out desirable variations caused by physical mutagens (gamma radiations) and chemical mutagens (EMS & DES) in gladiolus cv. American Beauty.