Abstract:
Gamma irradiation is a
widely manipulated mutation breeding
approach in agriculture for producing crops
with desired agronomic traits. The technique
is particularly advantageous to conventional
breeding methods because of minimal labor
and time requirement. Under laboratory and
field experiments during 2013, seeds of
Linum usitatissimum L. were irradiated with
2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 and 32 krad of
gamma irradiation doses from Co-60 source
for evaluating their effects on germination,
seedling survival, radicle and plumule
lengths, vegetative growth and productivity.
It was noted that radiation doses caused
significant changes in the studied traits of
test plant. Germination, radicle and plumule
lengths in lab study while shoot length,
number of leaves and leaf area, number of
fruits plant-1, number of seeds fruit-1, husk
weight fruit-1, number of branches plant-1,
fresh and dry biomass and moisture content
of shoots under pot culture varied
significantly under the applied radiation
stress. In general, radiation doses up to 8 kr
had stimulatory effects on the studied
parameters while doses exceeding 8 kr
negatively influenced germination, growth
and productive attributes of flax. Results
observed both stimulatory and inhibitory
effects of the irradiation doses. The study
suggests that radiation doses above 32 krad
induced lethal effects on general growth of
flax.
