Evaluation of physical and chemical mutagens on various genotypes of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) in M2 generation

Mutation breeding in crop plants such as brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) is a successful approach in change of product having narrow genetic base and to explore it a field experiment was conducted toevaluate the effect of physical mutagen such as gamma rays and chemical mutagens such as Ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) were used on two brinjal genotypes namely Banarasi Gol and Kashi Taru. The seeds were treated with different concentrations of gamma irradiation (5, 10, 15 and 20 kR) and EMS (0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20%).The increasing concentration of mutagens was recorded with a negative response on all growth and yield attributes of both the genotypes which ultimately reduce the yield. In this context the 5kR gamma rays and 0.05% EMS concentration were recorded with superior values of all characters in M2 generation. Early flowering and early edible fruit maturity was observed under 5kR gamma rays over all other treatments. The fruit yield per plant increased by 19.87% and 20.30% of Banarasi Gol and Kashi Taru, respectively under 5kR gamma rays over control. Lowest value of all characters was recorded under 0.20% EMS as compared to all other treatments including control. Thus it can be concluded on present study basis that the increasing concentration of mutagens were showed an adverse effect for all characters.