Induced chlorophyll mutations in Gloriosa superba

The present experiment was carried out to study the spectrum of chlorophyll mutations, mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency in Gloriosa superba seeds using both chemical and physical mutagens. Self pollinated seeds of glory lily ecotype Gs-15 were treated with different doses of gamma rays viz., 10, 20, 30 and 40 (Gy), EMS viz., 10, 20, 30 and 40 mM and DES 15, 20, 25 and 30 mM. Both physical and chemical mutagens had significantly contributed to the production of the spectrum of chlorophyll mutants with higher mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency. The treatment of mutagens resulted in the production of four types of chlorophyll mutants viz., albina, xantha, chlorina and viridis. The mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency were calculated based on biological damage as well as chlorophyll mutation frequency on M1 plants. The results indicated that the mutagenic efficiency was the highest, at lower and intermediate concentrations of mutagens. The frequency of xantha (8.36) mutants were the highest followed by viridis (7.01) and other types were observed in all the treatments. Among different treatments, gamma rays were effective than the other two chemical mutagens in inducing different chlorophyll mutations. A comparatively lesser number of albina (2.13) mutants were observed with respect to all the mutagens studied. The higher frequency of mutations was observed in gamma irradiated seedlings (28.28) as compared to EMS (17.57) and DES (11.96). Likewise, the mutagenic effectiveness was at an increased score (81.10%) with 10 Gy gamma irradiation treatment. With regard to the EMS, based on lethality, increased mutagenic efficiency (27.37%) was observed at 20 mM concentration. Conversely, lower doses of physical mutagen (gamma radiation) induced a higher mutagenic rate, while EMS registered a lower score of mutations